o edit a students’ journal like this in the present context of the public University in Brazil requires more than organizational efforts from those involved in the task: it

requires commitment to the idea suggested in Whitman’s image to which the name of the journal alludes - the one of sounding one’s yawp, in this case opening space to the publicizing of students’ researches and ideas. Yawp 8 is a compilation of works that are representative of the different fields and theoretical approaches covered in the area of Linguistic and Literary Studies in English. The structure and style of the articles indicate the affinity of the authors with scientifically based analysis, as well as their motivation to pursue academic competence as future researchers. Yawp’s formative role has been one of the targets since its inception, as the present issue successfully corroborates. If a students’ journal like this has always been a most welcome and rewarding activity, the moment we are presently facing in the public University in Brazil has made it even more urgent and relevant for one more reason: the conditions for effective debate in the University have been severely impaired in the last years, and a magazine like Yawp can potentially serve as a vehicle to keep the circulation and exchange of ideas alive and to prevent the community spirit from being suppressed altogether among students. Higher and higher demands have been placed upon the University as concerns the institutional assessments of its academic performance. These assessments, almost entirely based on rankings and on the quantitative analysis of the so called results and products, have strongly contributed to deemphasize the concern with socially committed research, and to stimulate the pursuing of excellence as exclusively expressed through indexation, quantification and statistics . The growing demand for productivity that spread to all areas of the University took the form of an unquestionable priority and mounted to unprecedented levels, while research resources, on the other hand, suffered drastic cuts in all academic areas. Within this context, a students’ journal like Yawp is certainly of utmost importance: it breathes the fresh air of open expression, and it does not need to legitimate its existence resorting to numbers extracted from abstruse graphs and charts of the academic bureaucracy. Yawp shares texts, ideas, poems and translations for the pleasure of doing it, and for the warm, sincere and open-hearted conviction that there is a lot to be said , investigated, analyzed, discussed, shared and changed in the world.

Students’ Yawp can be energetically and vigorously committed to the idea that the present circumstances do require their barbaric battle cry as much as they did when Walt Whitman wrote “Leaves of Grass” , when Charles Bukowski wrote “So you want to be a writer”, or when Bertolt Brecht wrote the poem “Let nothing be called natural”. This being said, we welcome all the readers (hopefully future Yawp authors and editors) and invite them to let the sounds of these students’ Yawp sound highly and generously through the pages. Maria Sílvia Betti Departament of Modern Languages Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences University of São Paulo

Table of Contents Literature Stasis and Movement in Kew Gardens and Hills Like White Elephants By Thais Malagoli Braga. ......................................................................................................... 8 Comparative Critical Essay: The storm, by Kate Chopin and Cat in the rain, by Ernest Hemingway By Laís Marinho da Cruz. ......................................................................................................... 12 Things fall apart, by Chinua Achebe: a deeper analysis on Okonkwo’s trajectory By André Henriques Oshiro..................................................................................................... 15 The inevitable desire of the heart: a representation of the revolutionary Irish life in the short story The Patriot, by Sean O’Faolain By Victor Augusto da Cruz Pacheco...................................................................................... 18 James Joyce’s representations of women: subversion and oppression By Rodrigo Manz de Paula Ramos.......................................................................................... 27 The idea of Authority and the use of farce in Social Criticism in Joe Orton’s Loot By Jonathan Renan da Silva Souza......................................................................................... 32 Why don’t we just let go: rumination on prejudice in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice By Melina Valente...................................................................................................................... 48 Comparative analysis between Alice Walker’s The Flowers and Katherine Mansfield’s Life of Ma Parker By Amanda Zimbarg..................................................................................................................... 51

1 English undergraduate student at the University of São Paulo. E-mail: [email protected] gmail.com

Abstract: It is interesting to notice how - in different historical contexts as well as in different approaches and syntaxes - the same elements can still be found in two short stories. An excess of movement in life calls for a moment, even if it is the smallest one, in which some sort of stasis is almost imposed on us. In order to show how movement and stasis are put together in both short stories, we make use of nature elements present in Hemingway as well as in Woolf to represent that opposition mutually important. Perhaps significantly, these literary works might come in hand when analyzing other contemporary stories in which this runaway from the movement of routine becomes more and more usual. Keywords: Fragments. Movement. Nature. Stasis.

Introduction

T

he aim of this article is to compare the essence of both short stories Kew Gardens, by Virginia Woolf, and Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway, highlight-

ing the element of stasis and movement in both. For that matter, it is advisable to take into consideration each of the historical facts surrounding these creations. In Virginia Woolf, the art movement of the 19th century, Impressionism, was clearly a strong influence in her work; strong enough to allow all its characteristics to flow into the story itself. Painting qualities are mixed in Kew Gardens, such as the thin yet visible brush strokes; the depiction of light in its “changing qualities” as if it was really representing something in a picture; the ordinary subject matter (different but ordinary couples strolling through the garden), and the idea of movement as an important element of human perception and experience. Differently, in Hemingway we have the in-between wars background, which, although not explicitly, brings out the idea of soldiers coming back from the First World War carrying nothing but a dramatic experience, and therefore, according to Benjamin (1936), carrying along for their lives not an experience, but a trauma: feeling the impossibility to carry on, those soldiers end up lacking the domestic, wife-and-kids routine that life could bring.

8

literature

The Comparison

are always presented in pairs and are all

ifferent from the geometrical quality

D

about to reach the same place, in order to

found in traditional short stories, in

have some tea.

contemporary writing, the traditional lin-

James (1977) says that plotless nar-

earity is not necessarily present; there is

ratives such as “Kew Gardens” have as a

no longer the need of one definite starting

salient quality:

point followed by a certain progression

an impression like that we often get of

which will always lead towards a conflict

people in life: their orbits come out of

and a denouement: the “one character, one

space and lay themselves for a short

theme in order to produce one single ef-

time aloung ours, and then off they

fect”, as Aristotle would say, is no longer

whirl again into the unknown, leaving

a necessity.

us with little more than an impres-

In Hemingway’s short story it be-

sion of their reality and a feeling of

comes obvious the presence of the iceberg

baffled curiosity as to the mystery of

theory, as in “what is most essential to un-

the beginning and end of their being.

derstand the story as a whole is never told”.

(JAMES, apud REID, 1977, p. 65)

In this case, we can observe two stories, the first one laying before the reader’s eyes and the second one hidden, as the in-between lines story that has fragments which may be useless or superfluous in one story, but essential for the other. Hills Like White Elephants comes to us with these two parallels stories; apparently this is just the story of a couple that is chatting in a train station in Spain, presenting nothing more than a chapter of a couple’s life. Nevertheless, the whole story of the couple is told in between lines and the most essential to understand - the conflict - can slip away from the reader’s view. The same can be found in Kew Gardens, in which there is not one single clear conflict. Here, the fragments given are several blurred images, different strokes of stories and their conflicts. A symmetry to be pointed out would be the fact that the people who stroll around the garden

The movement-stasis opposition is given not only by the fragments that form the plot - contrasted with the uninterrupted development of the traditional plot -, but also by elements of nature very much present in both short stories. These elements may emphasize this opposition or work as metaphors, emphasizing either the movement or the stasis within the plot. What we happen to find in Kew Gardens is the opposition given by the flowerbed description - taking the different light impressions as it moves, as well as stroking these impressions - and the colour effects through the petals. The grounded narrator, that is, the snail, also sets the same opposition. This latter example presents the story through an angle of a character that is continually trying to keep up his path while constantly being interrupted by the fragmental chats of the garden’s passengers. It is relevant

9

revista YAWP to point out that the figure of one of the

has been made yet, only acting and living

slowest animals must be the only one that

with no responsibilities and worries, only

has a goal that will have to be reached

dreaming of a time in which a life would

through moving, although not explicated.

have to be built, a time in which there was

Still in Kew Gardens, we have the

The same natural elements are

the butterflies and the dragonfly - as trig-

present in Hemingway’s short story,

gers to a reflection towards the inner lives

though, in this case, they work as symbols

of each character, whether they are con-

for the discussion that builds the story’s

scious of it or not.

dialogue itself. It is what we have in “the

As examples of such usage of

girl was looking off at the line of hills. They

nature elements, we have the tradi-

were white in the sun and the country was

tional family strolling through the

brown and dry. ‘They look like white ele-

f lowerbed that is crossed by white and

phants’, she said.” (HEMINGWAY, 1927,

blue butterf lies when the husband goes

p.539). Both the “hills” and the “white el-

back fifteen years remembering his

ephants” bring out the stasis of the dia-

“almost-proposal” to another woman

logue, the hidden conflict of the baby and

and, consequently, wondering at how

its reference as burden to the American

that decision might have taken him to

man.

a whole different experience. That is, if

Similarly to the first short story,

only a dragonf ly had settled on a specif-

the elements of “modern civilization” are

ic leaf. The odds are that the environ-

related to reality’s necessity of contin-

ment, the turf crossed by the butterf lies

uous movement, reflecting - in Hills Like

and also the f lowers themselves, led the

White Elephants - and doubting on wheth-

husband to a conscious ref lection on his

er to catch the train and undergo the pro-

past.

cedure or stay and deal with a domestic, Another example is given when

the young couple is observed, (...) when two other people came past outside on the turf. This time they were both in the prime of youth, or even in that season which precedes the prime of youth (...) when the wings of the butterflies, though fully grown, are motionless in the sun. (WOOLF, 1919, p.11)

In this case, we have nature not as a trigger to a reflection, but also as a metaphor of an age when all the first experiences are being lived; no reflection

10

thinking and reflection.

elements of nature - like the flowerbed,

family life. The train tracks act as divisions between those two options. Although in Kew Gardens the city elements are present at the end - “the motor omnibuses were turning their wheels and changing their gear” (p. 87) - we believe that they are put as to provoke a different interpretation of the story. As if all those talks and pretense reflections were nothing, but “wordless voices”, strokes of thoughts that slid away in the city’s murmur. Despite the fact that those elements are also present in Hills Like White

literature

Elephants, they are necessary to make up the discussion - led always by the Ameri-

seek for “the effect”. This latter by means

can man - helping to trigger the doubt, the

of what makes the stories unforgettable

reflection, and the discussion itself.

for its reader, capturing him/her through

Conclusion

F

the mystery and secret in some unsolved event. It must always invite the reader to a

inally, either closer to the poetry form,

stasis so that, escaping from the stressful

by what Friedman (1967) says to be

movement as product of our day-by-day

“the Camera” - the ultimate authorical ex-

life, it will be possible to take a moment to

clusion with the aim to transmit a portion

reflect or at least to keep on moving with

of life -, as in Kew Gardens, or closer to a

a different perspective.

Y

“dramatic mode”, as in Hills Like White Elephants, the short story shall, at all times,

References FRIEDMAN, N. The point of view in fiction. In: The Theory of the Novel. New York: Free, 1967. HEMINGWAY, E. Hills Like White Elephants. In: Men without Women. 1927. REID, I. Essential Qualities. In: The

perspective towards the female role in Literature. However, the protagonists are not

hotmail.com

feminist heroes - their conducts only represent the changes in society. Analyzing the characters’ actions and the symbolic elements in these narratives, while considering the historical context in which they were created allow us to understand why these stories are so remarkable. Keywords: Cat in the rain. Female role in Literature. Meaningful conflict. Modern short stories. The storm.

M

odern short stories are characterized by their unity of conflict; which means that every sentence of the story must tend to a single crisis, according to Edgar Alan

Poe (1994). Therefore, Julio Cortázar (1994) and Frank O’Connor (1963) have pointed out the importance of embracing a character’s past and future in the present of the narrative to produce a powerful impression after a fast perusal. Moreover, both writers have mentioned that the narrated event also has to be meaningful and bound with its historical reality in order to write a good modern short story. The storm, by Kate Chopin, and Cat in the rain, by Ernest Hemingway, were chosen to illustrate such characteristics through a comparative critical analysis. The stories were written in the ending of the 19th century and in the beginning of

the 20th, respectively, which explains why their common theme was so meaningful. Both Chopin and Hemingway portrayed unhappy married women subtly rebelling against the imposed female role of submissive wives in society. Considering that the 1800s was the starting point of feminist concepts and legal divorces, the exposure of a woman’s adultery or a wife’s complaints and frustrations were very polemic and revolutionary subjects at the time the short stories were written. According to Frank O’Connor, (1963) modern short stories do not have heroes; their protagonists belong to submerged population groups and follow the reader’s attitude towards life. Therefore, Calixta and The American woman – as verisimilar characters who represented an oppressed group – were ordinary wives with many social boundaries who, somehow, would still rebel against the oppression of their time, stimulating the critical reader’s reflection. When it comes to Calixta, the social conduct of the Victorian period is observed

12

in her resistance to the signs of the metaphorical storm. In one moment, she closes

ical traits so as to examine the impact of the British colonialism on the novel’s fictional

usp.br

clan – Umuofia. It follows that such analysis will also serve the purpose of pinpointing the mechanisms which Achebe employs in order to exalt the unsettling particularities of the African culture in question, no longer seen from the perspective of primitivism. Keywords: African identity. Post-coloniality. Nigeria. British colonialism.

B

y analyzing the Nigerian novel Things fall apart, written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, from a literary perspective, it is reasonable to contend that one of the driving

forces sustained by its author is the process of colonialization on the part of the Brit-

ish over Nigerian communities, as well as its social unfoldings. In doing so, Achebe actually attempts to depict such villages from the viewpoint of the natives rather than the settlers’, who, in turn, impose their culture and language over the former. Having said that, this article focuses on the literary elements which are at work as far as the narrative is concerned, that is, the extent up to which formal aspects may enable us to see the British power as a determiner of the protagonist’s trajectory. To begin with, it is of paramount importance that we perceive how Achebe strives to make visible to the reader how the local villages work. By and large, he emphasizes their particularities and how each of them relate to the confederation of villages as a whole. The reader gradually makes sense of the subtleties and restraints imbedded in their system, in terms of social and economic organization, justice, religion, culture and traditions. Thus, it is possible to infer that Achebe argues in favour of a narrative in which the representation of African culture is no longer seen as primitive. The aforementioned consideration corroborates the fact that all African characters do not seem to portray merely stereotypical traits, unlike the characters who represent the colonizers. Robert Fraser (2000) mentions, in Lift ing the sentence, the critic and poet Wilson Harris’ (1964) impressions on the rise of the novel with respect to the element of ‘character’ present in such literary genre. He argues that “[…]the nineteenth-century novel has exercised a very powerful inf luence on reader and writer alike in the contemporary world. [...] As a result ‘character’ in a novel rests more

15

revista YAWP or less on the self-sufficient individu-

proves that the protagonist often comes

al - on elements of ‘persuasion’”. (FRA-

across moments in which he is drenched

SER, 2000, p. 135)

in guilt, causing him to ref lect on his

Therefore, the Africans’ singular individuality is highlighted, making

reading the following excerpt:

room for an overlap of time and space,

Okonkwo was beginning to feel like

given that, from the perspective of the

his old self again. All that he required

reader, it is possible to access the charac-

was something to occupy his mind. If

ters’ thoughts through their inner world

he had killed Ikemefuna during the

and also through the external world.

busy planting season or harvesting it

Moreover, it is undeniable that the un-

would not have been so bad, his mind

derlying principles and values which

would have been centered on his work.

pervade Umuofia happen to be at times

Okonkwo was not a man of thought

stronger than the characters’ intrinsic

but of action (ACHEBE, 1994, p. 69).

motivation, causing them to disregard their own acts to comply with a specific tradition. The narrator, in this sense, shares such information with the readers, in order for them to better understand the very end of the story. The narration revolves around Okonkwo’s point of view, providing us with elements which, altogether, evince the characters’ complexity and grant him the role of representing the thoughts and ideals of his own particular time and place. On account of his father’s failures and lack of manliness, Okonkwo, throughout the novel, approaches his companions and children in a highly oppressive way. Such behavior is founded on the idea that “no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (especially his women) he was not really a man”. (ACHEBE, 1994, p. 53). Despite the fact that Okonkwo adopts a really tough attitude towards people who are close to him, the novel

16

own actions. That can be identified by

By the time that Okonkwo realizes he had murdered somebody he considered to be a self-made man, he becomes guilty. In this sense, the narrator enters his consciousness and shows the mechanisms which Okonkwo draws on to feel exempt from such guilt. The narrator subtly makes it clear that the protagonist is not incapable of feeling compassionate towards actions and/or people. On the other hand, the notion that Okonkwo is a man of action is recurrently emphasized. That is what confers him a good deal of complexity: the character struggles not to fail like his father, because he is also, after all, under pressure due to the responsibilities he has to cope with as a man of honour. Such phenomenon makes it clear that Okonkwo, as a leader, is entitled to validate codes of behaviour which he deems relevant for his community: for as long as he lives in Umuofia, he preaches that one should always obey the laws. His assertions, up to a certain point,

literature reinforce the idea that the community

ters his original place at the mercy of the

in question is ruled by a solid system,

English power after his seven-year exile,

which gives credibility to the story.

he does not feel part of that community

On that note, it is worth mention-

anymore. Umuofia, in the end, maintains

ing that Okonkwo’s psychological indi-

a configuration in which fighting against

viduality maybe easily contrasted with

an inevitable imposition by white men

Obierika’s. Throughout the novel, one

occurs, but the values of such imposition

may affirm that the latter is very much

are definitely assimilated by great part of

inclined to contest the laws which gov-

the village locals. Hence, Okonkwo’s iden-

ern their community, rather than solely

tity must be now defined on grounds of

accept them. On the occasion in which

where he turns out to be and not where

Okonkwo and Obierika discuss the ozo

he comes from. However, he refuses to

title, they come to divergent opinions, as

conform to that.

follows: “It is so indeed,” Okonkwo agreed. “But the law of the land must be obeyed.”

In light of the considerations above, it is safe to say that the motivations which shape Okonkwo’s trajectory are, to a certain extent, propelled by the British force,

It was doubtless because of the inevitable desire of man to recapture the past that they went to Youghal for their honeymoon. Their friends expected them to go at least to Dublin, if not

research (2013-

to London or Paris, but they both knew in their hearts that they had spent the gayest days of

2014), called As

their lives in this little town, and so as if to crown all those early happiness to Youghal they

representações da Irlanda

went, like true voluptuaries deliberately creating fresh memories that would torment them when they were old. (O’FAOLAIN, 1982, p. 144)

revolucionária nos contos de Sean O’Faolain guided

Abstract: This paper aims to show the presence of the Irish historical context

by Professor Laura P. Z. Izarra and funded by RUSP Scholarship

(situated between 1916 and 1922) in the short story “The Patriot” compiled on Midsummer Night Madness written by Sean O’Faolain in 1932. After the reading taken from this

(University of São

short story, we realized that the Irish history works as a background for the narrative

Paulo).

through literary elements. Considering that the years covered in this short stories’ edition correspond to a time of intense struggle for independence of Ireland, it will be discussed the literary construction of the heroic young man who fights for his country through themes like patriotism, memory, love and death. Also, it will be checked the

(John Francis Whelan, 19001991) was an Irish writer with an intense literary production. He wrote fiction (novels, short stories collections and a play) and

Introduction2

I

f the ability to narrate, according to Walter Benjamin (1985), was lost due to war, at least this experience, transposed as literature, was made in a critical way. Sean

O’Faolain3 did not narrate his vision of World War I, because he did not fight in it,

but raised a point so significantly: the Irish revolution for independence. This period

non-fiction

is marked by political and armed conflicts with England in order to achieve indepen-

(biographies,

dence. Started in 1916, with the Easter Rising, followed by a civil war between the two

travel guides,

sides of the country (Anglo Irish War in 1919); the recognition of the independence and

a history of Ireland), including a

the separation of Ireland into two parts (Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921) and finally the disunity of the Irish political party that has articulated full independence with the emergence of the civil war (Irish Civil War in 1922).

18

literature Midsummer Night Madness, O’Fao­‑

mind for the final verdict that appears in

lain’s first book published in 1932, is a

“The Patriot”. As well as the characters

newspaper (The

work in which we can see the author’s

being tormented by the wishing to “re-

Bell). In his work

position about this revolutionary period

capture the past”, the reader will also be

in Ireland. The collection of short story is

tormented by a few questions that arise

in favour of

considered by Paul Delaney (2014, p. 153)

while reading: what kind of soldier has

Ireland’s political

as a “short story cycle”: there is a repeti-

the revolution created? Will this struggle

sovereign through

tion of “themes, tropes and concerns” and

be worth it in the end and will it bring the

to “focus on a particular time and place”

so desired freedom?

(Idem, p. 170). Following this notion of the

The title, like all other stories

impossibility of narration, the short sto-

from Midsummer Night Madness, is quite

ry collection shows a disillusioned aspect

meaningful, but we shall see its true sig-

and the denial of a romanticized national-

nificance only at the end of the narrative.

ism, based on characters that were not in

Dealing with the formal aspects of the

History books, but rather in a conflictual

narrative,

reality of the revolutionary struggle. The quotation used in the beginning of this article is the first paragraph of the last narrative of Midsummer Night Madness by O’Faolain. It begins showing us the unity that passes throughout the book, not only by the social and historical themes, but also, with the resumption of figures and style, in order to affirm the critical view of the revolutionary events. The attention that O’Faolain gives to the first paragraph reaffirms even more the short stories theories from Edgar Allan Poe to Julio Cortázar: the author wants to show us since the beginning the main conflict of the narrative. Desire (coming as if it was an order from the heart) and memory were fundamental to the development of another short story in the book and these same elements are displaced by this new situation (or new narrative), but without losing their first meaning. What becomes clear is that the narratives sequence in Midsummer Night Madness was not arbitrary, so, we have to keep that in

In addition to the structure, we can divide the story into three parts: the love affair between Norah and Bernard, life in guerrilla warfare, and finally, Bernard’s final choice. In the first part we see the presentation of the main characters: Bernard, Norah and Edward Bradley. It is very common in love stories placed during a war that two characters fall in love and, due

19

revista YAWP to the enlistment or army induction; the

cheered until their voices echoed state

hero has to leave his beloved and fight for

across the smooth surface of the water

his country in foreign lands and his dying

into the woods beyond. (p. 146)

leaves an unfinished love story. This will not occur in “The Patriot” but the issue of death is very important to be analyzed , since that is a possible way to escape from a war. When it comes to the plot, the war itself serves as a barrier to overcame and achieve a happy ending. Bernard meets Norah twice during the first part, but only with the passage of time, they fall in love, before Bernard going to fight in the Irish 4 We can affirm

Civil War of 19224. Bernard choses to fight:

that through a

he was not forced or obliged to join the

point placed in the narrative:

revolutionary struggles, there is a patriot-

O’Faolain

ic characteristic in that first moment: he

named the

joins the fight to defend his country. An

group Bernard

interesting fact that can be noticed in this

was fighting in (Irregular

first part is the weather. Summer is the

guerilla), that was

most favorable season for joy and fun and

formed to assist

that is the reason the most positivist feel-

in the Irish Civil

ings are placed in that part. It is on sum-

War.

mer evenings (reference to A Midsummer Night’s Dreams by William Shakespeare) that Bernard and Norah can achieve their love affair. This romantic event in Bernard’s life will torment him during the whole narrative, because it is what makes him imagine a new possibility of life. Edward Bradley is presented since the beginning of the tale as a fervent patriotic politician: That day he had spoken with a terrible passion against England, and against the Irish traitors who had been cowed by her, and his passionate words caught and flared the temper of the people so that they cheered and

20

Bradley is the one responsible for the actions and policies, primarily by speech of exhortation in order to lift up the mood in favor of the Irish struggle. This character concentrates all the aspects of historical figures that articulated and coordinated the revolutionary actions. The charisma and good oratory are the hallmarks of a political character, which in turn, is very important to induce and persuade people to fight or at least assist in the fight, and we can see this when Bernard “(...) had cheered like the rest where he stood beside Norah, proud to be that man’s friend. “ (Idem). From the hot and warm summer that allowed a love story, the narrative passes to autumn, with a landscape that is gray and rainy, typical of the second part of the tale. This part is dedicated to the period of time which Bernard passed in the “guerrilla life.” “It was the way of life that is guerilla that months on end the man never even though of home or friends, and for months Bernard wandered among those grey mountains to the north of Youghal, the aimless, and he used to feel more uselessly, than the lost sheep. Once only did he use his rifle in those seven months of guerilla life and that was when sniping from fifteen hundred yards the village supposed to contain enemy troops, He slept in a different bed each night and never ate twice in succession from the same ta-

literature ble so that most of his time was spent

pity to get the basics for survival: Bernard

in going from place to place in search

almost ceases to be a “human being”.

of food and rest. He did so less from

There is also an ambiguous point in these

a sense of danger than a sense of pity

paragraphs: the mobility is seen only in

towards the farmers who had to feed

the moving from one place to another

and shelter him and his fellows, never

and not in the fight itself. The sensation

thinking that the all his fellows did as

of immobility is also strengthened when

he was doing, it saved nothing to the

we consider the relation between “cities

flour bin lying lightly on the loft, or

versus countryside” (this later is a quiet

the tea-caddy on the high mantel-self,

place without many events, with the pos-

emptied almost daily. The days scarley

sibility of a quiet life in communion with

existed for him and the weeks flew over

nature, and the former one is an unrest

his head the unnoticed the homing

and urbanized place), since Bernard is

birds at night, until the human being

running through cities in the countryside

he may be said to be almost, envoloped

of Ireland. This also occurs on another

by the countryside as if he was a twig,

occasion, when Bernie is asked about the

the stone, an ear of corn.” (p. 147-148)

resolution of a meeting with the leaders

These two paragraphs have great

of the Irish rebel movement:

significance in order to understand Ber-

‘Well? What was deh deh end of meet-

nard’s attitudes throughout the narrative.

ing, aw? Are we to go home or stay

We observe a negative sensation that the

here? Aw? ‘

narrator, from the point of view of Ber-

‘Fight on! ‘ said Bernie.

nie, passes to the reader through words such as “never”, “aimless”, “uselessly” and “pity”. These words, if placed not just to the narrative, but also to the Irish revolution itself, can have their meanings

They look to him too tired to mock the phrase. ‘Stay here, he means ‘ said Buckteeth. ‘Stay bloody well here. (p. 156)

changed: “aimless” and “uselessly”, for

There is a character’s attempt to

example, can be seen as the revolutionary

continue the fight to make sure that it is

effort as a whole. We note that O’Faolain

valid. “Fight on!” in addition to be a way of

does not use his contemporary vision of

hiding from himself the immobility, it also

post-independence Ireland, putting the

shows an initial desire from Bernie about

fight as something that gave a positive re-

the revolutionary struggle. He feels that

sult. In fact, uncertainty is the main feel-

he needs to talk to someone, “(...) some-

ing of the characters of Midsummer Night

body like Bradley, someone who would

Madness. Bernard’s vision becomes more

persuade him that this struggle of theirs

pessimistic when we observe the lack of

was not hopeless, that all their humilia-

humanity of the men who were in this

tion of poverty and hunger was not, as he

guerrilla life, depending on other people’s

had long since begun to feel, the useless

21

revista YAWP and wasted offering.” (p. 149). The entire

All about him on the night he thought

passage was constructed with words in a

of her [...]”. (p. 148).

negative meaning, with a frequent use of 5 -less is a suffix

the suffix -less5, showing the psychic state

which, when

of the character that is even more affected

added to a word, adds the idea

by memories he has with Norah. Memo-

of “no”, and

ry forms the second part of the narrative

when placed

and it will have a fundamental space in

in adjectives

the tale as it is the most important factor

derived from verbs, indicates

that will form Bernard’s opinion about

failure or

the fight for independence. Memory in

inability to carry

“The Patriot” is formed by the image of

out or perform

a past event and is associated with the

an action. Dictionary.com.

affective experience of the character.

Available at:

Comparing to another short story from

the book, memory in “Midsummer Night

reference.com/

Madness” is more peripheral: even though

browse/-less=””>. Accessed on May 31, 2014.

it constitutes the entire first part of the narrative, it only serves to introduce the character Alexander Henn. While in “The Bombshop” we see memory connected to Mother Dale and during Norah’s epiphany, in which she realizes that getting older is, actually, a celebration of life. In “The Patriot” this is also placed in the first part, and it relates almost as a ubiquitous way in the plot and life of the main character. This negative feeling and the immobility that torments Bernard increase every time the memories that involve Norah come to his mind. The verbs “to think” and “to remember” will be repeated throughout this part in sentences like

22

An interesting fact in this passage is the relationship between a subjective aspect, which are the feelings that Bernie has for Norah, with the vision that the character has of the landscape. There is the strengthening of negative features employed to winter and the cold weather opposed to the amiability of the summer. The image of Norah confirms what Munira Mutran says in her doctoral thesis, showing that “[p]ara O’Faolain às vezes a mulher aparece como aquela jovem de cabelos escuros, da qual conhecemos apenas o aspecto exterior; representa para os rebeldes em fuga, a segurança e o aconchego do lar que não podem ter.” (Mutran, 1976 p. 122-123). Bernard’s life is made of running from one place to another, a hiding, a constant humiliation, suffering from starvation to the conditions of the weather. The contrast to this bad life the character goes through is the comfort that Norah provided to him at the beginning of the narrative. Another point that must be highlighted is the importance of the home for the life of the Irish. Irish life is composed primarily by familiar relations, once society is governed by the patriarchal system. We do not see in Midsummer Night Madness these family relationships, nor

“[...] he remembered how lovely You-

we know the character’s family or famil-

ghal had been, and how lovely Norah,

iar ties, like parents or relatives. However,

and he hated to look up at the cold and

we have to consider that the “aconchego

naked mountains. Thinking of that

do lar”, as says Mutran, is fundamental to

and thinking of the summer his mem-

this association with the image of women,

ory began to work on him like a goad.

that is also related to the role of women

literature in Irish society. Throughout the narra-

The excerpt above shows a kind

tive, there will be two situations in which

of collapse on the part of all the guerril-

Bernard will be in a home: the first is the

las. The safety issue and the next step

place that functions as a kind of head-

to be taken increase the feeling of lack

quarters, where the guerrillas can spend a

of purpose that revolutionary actions

minimum time and stock up on guns and

were awakening in Bernard. Seeing the

ammunition. It is in this place that occurs

reaction of one of the rebels, we can add

the dialogue excerpt above and Bernard

another thematic point that is part of

tries to borrow some money to return

Midsummer Night Madness: the question

home and see Norah, because “If he could

of death. The proximity of death can be

rest for a while and see Norah, he would

seen through all the narratives included

become invigorated by her and be of some

in the book and its fear increases due to

use again.” (p. 152). At the end of the nar-

young age. Life and death are counteract-

rative, he stays in a house, in which he is

ed in the narrative background, showing

hosted by a family that supports the rev-

that the choices tend towards life, in an

olutionary struggle along with the other

obvious sense that the characters always

guerrillas. In this house, one of Bernard’s

will seek the option that gives them the

companions externalizes everything he

possibility to live. There is also the char-

feels through tears:

acters’ fear of death (that to philosophy is

“[…] and when he heard the others argue that Limerick was a far more dangerous place than Cork he sat down wearily by the fire and began to cry telling his companions between his tears that he was afraid to go on with them and would hide here among the mountains. All the while Buckteeth and the others looked awkwardly at him. They offered him cigarrettes and tried to cheer him by assuring him that that place was as safe as a house, and while he and they drank the scalding tea and the soft hot cake the girls searched him out a pair of socks and a dry, if torn, shirt. But while they ate they were less sure about the safety of the glens and they argued and argued as to what they should do next.” (p. 157158)

the essential question of human life) and the fear of not having lived long enough. Reading a letter from Norah, Bernard “smiled at that letter, so full of life as it was (...) and he passionately wished to be away from so lonely and cruel place. “ (p. 149). The interesting thing here is that Bernard realizes that the life as a guerrilla rebel is not his place: his place is, actually, next to Norah, who has a life that he does not have. Even if the letter was analyzed as a pure inanimate object, it was full of life, while he was alone in a cruel place. Returning to the excerpt, this externalization of a shared sentiment can be seen as an antecipation of the narrative sequence: Bernard and his companions are captured, staying in prison for one year, and when he was released, he finds refuge in Youghal, Norah’s city. The city is also the place of their honeymoon

23

revista YAWP and we come back to the first paragraph

characters and even the reader are faced

of the short story that opened this anal-

with a decision that should be taken. The

ysis. During the trip, the couple stumbles

narrative was built on facts that hap-

upon a poster announcing a public meet-

pened in Bernard’s life during the life in

ing organized by Sinn Fein Party, whose

guerrilla warfare and the presentation

spokesman is Edward Bradley. And even

of the love story with Norah. We see, in

after all the chronological time of the nar-

fact, the contrast between a romantic

rative, Bradley,when he was speaking, had

vision and reality in all the plans of the

“the terrible passion of the man blazed

narrative: Bernard begins like a true reb-

like the fire of burning youth.” (p. 161). Ber-

el, wanting to fight for the sovereignty of

nard and Norah are not as encouraged

his homeland, always having his spirit

as the first time they attended Bradley’s

inflated with the passionate speeches of

speech together, this time, they decided

Edward Bradley. An idealized passion for

to go back to the hotel they were staying,

revolution, that is a patriotic aspect and is

where occurs the final scene of the story:

at the center of the nationalist representa-

“Over his shoulder he could see her pale form in the dim light, but where he stood by the window with one hand raised to the blind his eyes fell on the passing car. He saw the white hair of their orator-friend, the old bachelor, the patriot, driving out of the town into the country and the dark night. The hedges would race past him; the rabbits skip before his headlights on the road; the moths in cool wind would fly round his flushed face and his hands trembling. But that wind would not for many miles cool the passion in him to 6 Available at

which he had given his life.

‘Bernard’, she whispered again, and

oxforddictionar ies.com/us/ definition/

her voice trembled a little. He drew the blind down slowly, the

american_

lamp shadowing the framework of the

english/patriot?q

window on it, and slowly he turned

=patrio tism#patriot__9> Accessed on Apr. 30, 2015

24

to her where she smiled to him in the dark.” (p. 162)

tions, still accompanies Bernard. Actually, we see through the narrative the reality of a revolutionary struggle, that is more of a daily running than filled with heroic acts. It is this feeling that reappears at the end of the story: we see the fight between idealization and reality. Norah’s call, that can be considered an ubiquitous character within the story because she always appears through the Bernard’s memories, is responsible for bringing Bernard to the reality and also makes the reader remember all the “humiliations” the character went through during his days as a rebel. For the first time the adjective “patriot”, that it is the title of the short story, appears being used to qualify Edward Bradley. The term as a dictionary entry, just indicates that patriot is one who “(...) vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.” (Oxford, 2015)6. The definition becomes generic since it is also used as a

The narrative seems to revolve

synonym or as something linked to “na-

around this last passage, in which the

tionalism”. Patriotism and nationalism

literature in the context of the Irish revolutionary

The short stories analyzed on this

struggle (and in the narratives of Mid-

essay, are based on these notions of love

summer Night Madness) get uncertain be-

and identification of a struggle that aims

cause they have, as their main features,

at the independence of the country and

the words “love and identification” . The

political recognition. Patriotism and na-

difference between both terms is that

tionalism are presented in the last narra-

the “(...) object of patriotic commitment

tive, and we ask ourselves: who is the real

his introduction

was the patria, and this was conceived as

patriot? Is the patriot the one who really

to the book

a political entity, that is, the community

cares for his country or is he the one who

organized as a republic. Patriotism was

shows patriotism? In some way, it seems

and Political

the virtue appropriate to this conception

inconsistent that “the patriot” is employed

Perspective. “Both

of political life. “(Pole apud Primoratz,

for Bradley, because the character ap-

patriotism and

2007 p. 130). Ross Poole in an essay for the

pears only three times in the story, always

book Patriotism: Philosophical and Political

with the function to animate the fight,

Perspective, still differentiating the terms,

and when he is quoted, we know that he is

says that

hiding somewhere in Ireland. But also, it

7

“[…] patriots are more likely to be measured and reasonable in their commitments, to be responsible in their behavior, to respect the commitments of fellow patriots in other countries, and to look for a rational resolution of their occasional differences, while nationalists tend to be extreme, absolute, and uncritical in their commitments, too ready to claim superiority for their

seems odd that the patriot is one who gives up the fight more than once within

the short story. These questions are suspended, and maybe the narrative has no claim to answer them, but rather in forcing the reader into a reflection: patriotism is a feeling, or rather, it is a passion that can never be erased regardless of the choices of the individual, like an inevitable desire of the heart.

of women and the logos reserved to them in his contemporary society, as well as the attempts to escape patriarchal social impositions. Keywords: Female Characters. Feminism. Joyce. Patriarchy.

T

he beginning of the twentieth century was the stage of important manifestations of feminist nature. At a time still strongly attached to traditional values, the role of

women was supposed to be a domestic one - that of a mother and a wife. A woman’s importance was determined according to her husband’s status. Women suffrage and better opportunities for work and studies were crucial steps taken towards gender equality in a patriarchal society in which women were still very dependent on men. Female’s social condition did not go unnoticed by James Joyce and it is an important thematic in his works. According to Eugene O’Brien: Joyce’s delineation of women manages to both replicate the contemporary cultural context and to subvert it at the same time. In his work, woman oscillates between being subjectively constructed by the male gaze and being able to achieve a certain independence from this gaze by reconstructing the reflective ‘other’ and so attempting to redefine its parameters. Molly Bloom, for example, can be seen as prescriptive in her enunciation of a female subjectivity that is independent and attempts to resist and defeat the constraints of a patriarchal societal and cultural context which, by its very nature, defines women in negative opposition to man. (O’BRIEN, 2004, p. 213).

Thus, Molly Bloom from Ulysses is one of the examples of an independent woman’s subjectivity. Her presence in the novel is not ruled by a determined male character and her identity does not correspond to the image of women in that social context. This becomes very clear in Ulysses’ last chapter, “Penelope”, in which Molly’s internal monologue reveals her personality. Her musings in bed after Bloom’s return contemplate her past, present and future. Far from being a Victorian model wife, Marion Bloom is a strong, confident and even conceited, sexually liberated woman. She is not the typically romantic sentimental woman; she is quite strong, and maybe even cold when remembering of her dead son:

27

revista YAWP I suppose I oughtn’t to have buried him

with being a man and about the beauty

in that little woolly jacket I knitted

of women’s body: “I wish I was one [man]

crying as I was but give it to some poor

myself for a change just to try with that

child but I knew well I’d never have an-

thing they have swelling up on you so

other our 1st death too it was we were

hard and at the same time so soft when

never the same since O I’m not going

you touch it” (JOYCE, 1986, p. 638), “God I

to think myself into glooms about that

wouldn’t mind being a man and get up on

any more. (JOYCE, 2004, p. 640).

a lovely woman” (JOYCE, 1986, p. 633).

She also has difficulty when dealing with her daughter’s maturity and she feels jealous of the masculine attention drawn by Milly: her [Milly] tongue is a bit too long for my taste your blouse is open too low she says to me the pan calling the kettle blackbottom and I had to tell her not to cock her legs up like that on show on the windowsill before all the people passing they all look at her like me when I was her age of course any old rag looks well on you then. (JOYCE, 2004, p. 631).

of patriarchal values is Molly Ivors from Dubliners’ “The Dead”. In this short story, it is possible to delineate a parallel between gender issues and British/Irish relations. Gabriel Conroy is the patriarchal figure of this story; he has erudite education, is more interested in the culture of the European continent than in his “Irishness” and he “writes for The Daily Express, a conservative paper with royalist leanings, suggesting his own unconscious collusion with the Empire” (CHENG, 2006, p. 353). As England exerts its dominant pressure

Even though, now and then, she

over Ireland, analogously, Gabriel impos-

recognizes some of Leopold’s good qual-

es his male status over the women of the

ities, she is not sexually satisfied in her

story. However, Molly Ivors frustrates

marriage and cuckolds her husband with

Gabriel’s attempted superiority; she is an

the dandy Hugh (Blazes) Boylan. Molly

Irish nationalist, an independent woman

suspects that Bloom is aware of her ex-

who has erudite education as well, there-

tra conjugal affair; hers is a dominant

fore, Gabriel not only cannot intimidate

position and her husband’s is a masoch-

her intellectually, but is also vexed by her

istic one, since he does nothing to end the

accusations of him being a “West Briton”.

affair and even puts some effort not to stand in its way. Molly is quite proud of her dominant power over men and knows how to use it to get her ways. Such dominance and confidence are one of the characteristics that allows her to be classified as a “woman-manly”. She even fantasizes

28

Another character that represents feminine independence and subversion

Molly is outside the parameters with which Gabriel is familiar: she has demonstrated a sense of selfhood which he finds most threatening. Indeed, she embodies the independent sense of female subjectivity that will find it’s apotheosis in Joyce’s later work

literature (the fact that her first name is ‘Molly’

tioned intimate relationship. Afraid of be-

is surely proleptic of the later Molly

ing considered a deviant, what would cost

Bloom), as she is very obviously in no

him his good job in a wine-merchant’s of-

need of a man to complete her sense of

fice, Bob Doran will see himself forced to

selfhood. (O’BRIEN, 2004, p. 220-221).

marry Polly.

Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, also defies Gabriel’s dominance when he treats her in a patronizing and infantilizing way asking if she still goes to school and if she is soon to get married. Lily’s school days are over; she is not a girl anymore and, showing a mature and embittered critical sense over men’s behavior towards women, she responds: “The men is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.” (JOYCE, 2006, p. 154). Stepping out of her expected submissive social behavior, Lily embarrasses Gabriel, a man that impresses people with his “palaver”, who then expresses his dominance over her in the economic sphere giving her money for Christmas. She would not take it, but he leaves her no choice by going upstairs. “The Boarding House” shows us yet another female character that subverts the female-oppressing social order, or rather, she uses her knowledge of patriarchal values in her benefit: “Aware of the patriarchal nature of her society, Mrs. Mooney is capable of circumventing it when she can and accommodating herself to the unavoidable parts of patriarchy.” (O’BRIEN, 2004, p. 217). Mrs. Mooney knows that men also have their responsibilities and she uses this knowledge to coerce Bob Doran into marrying her daughter Polly as a form of reparation for putting her daughter’s honor in question by having an unclear and socially unsanc-

In “A Mother”, Mrs. Kearney is a woman who was “educated in a highclassed convent where she had learned French and music” (JOYCE, 2006, p. 116). Since she considered herself above her suitors, she started experiencing social pressure to get married and, because of that, “out of spite”, she marries Mr. Kearney, a passive and obedient husband. As Mrs. Mooney, Mrs. Kearney shows knowledge of society’s gender rules, but for the later, things do not go the way she wants them to go. Being well cultured and mannered, she probably had scared away suitors who would not like to marry a self-assured woman. However, at least she managed to arrange a marriage in which she was the dominant consort. Nevertheless,

her

biggest

dis-

appointment in the story is that of not receiving her daughter’s payment for a singing presentation exactly because she is a woman, what makes Mr. Holohan believe he could swindle her. In this story, Joyce criticizes women’s undermined situation in society. Mrs. Kearney, knowing of her socially fragile condition, took the socially accepted measures to ensure her daughter’s payment; she established a written contract and even took her husband to the presentation to enforce her claims with a masculine figure, but, ironically, to no avail. Mr. Holohan, the contractor, tries to elope from his responsibilities with sorry bureaucratic excus-

29

revista YAWP es, angering Mrs. Kearney who, losing

of the Artist as a Young Man. In the short

her temper, seems to be the one without

story, the protagonist is faced with a de-

reason in the eyes of those present. In her

cision to change her life or to keep it as it

anger, Mrs. Kearney allows herself to fall

is. In either way, her life will orbit around

into the gender-prejudiced concept of a

a male character, her father or Frank. In

hysterical woman.

the novel, the character of Emma serves

Besides these women who fight

only to further explore Stephen’s inter-

against the system’s oppression, Joyce

nal questions. This relation between fe-

also portraits those who are subjugated

male and male characters denounces “the

by it. These women are characters whose

gender politics of the era of the stories’

subjectivities are subordinated to a pres-

composition, as the roles of women are

ent or absent male figure like in the sto-

constantly framed by the activity of men

ries of The Sisters and The Dead:

with whom they are connected within the

Both stories focus on the lives of spinster sisters, Nannie and Eliza Flynn, in ‘The Sisters’, and Kate and Julia Morkan in ‘The Dead’. Both sets of sisters are unmarried and living together, and both are involved in social occasions – a funeral in ‘The Sisters’, and ‘the Misses Morkan’s annual dance’ in ‘The Dead’. Both sets of sisters find that these occasions are governed by the presence, or indeed absence, of a man. (O’BRIEN, 2004, p. 214).

In the first short story, the sisters are dependent on their brother, Father James, and their importance in the story is solely that of developing the character of their deceased brother. In the later, the importance of Gabriel as a patriarchal figure is clearly noticed thanks to the Morkan sisters’ anxiety for his arrival and the fact that he is expected to give a speech and to carve the goose. This same submission of a female character to a male one can be seen in “Eveline” and in A Portrait

30

matrix of the narrative.” (O’BRIEN, 2004, p. 215). Therefore, because of his portrayal of both subversive and submissive female characters, it is safe to say that Joyce was aware of the gender-issued oppression suffered by women in society, and that he was sensible to the struggles towards liberation and equality. Even though women’s social condition have improved since then, there is still much to change in order to achieve gender equality. Nowadays, almost a century later, feminist struggles gained greater visibility in societies across the world. This also goes for denouncing gender crimes and patriarchy’s injustices, such as the absurd gender wage gap and the atrocious sexual violence women suffer every day. With the Internet and social media, feminist claims and manifestations have become more accessible. Hopefully, these new and powerful channels of ideas will contribute and hasten society’s evolution.

presence of elements that relate to the authority theme through different devices: mainly to the Authority of religion, police force and law, and material interests and money. These Authorities that conform the characters are then taken in a critical perspective to the British society of the time. Regarding the formal analysis, the adoption of an established genre is sensed and problematized for specific critical purposes; it settles a singular and allegorical vision on reality, a sharp criticism and a particular style that places Joe Orton in the panorama of the British dramaturgy of the 20th century. Keywords: Theater Studies. 20th century. Modern British Theater. Farce. Joe Orton.

Introduction

J

oe Orton (1933-1967) was one of the great exponents of the English theater of the postWorld War II period. The playwright was a controversial figure in his personal life,

and his particular vision of reality decisively marked all his plays, which circulated in the English scenario of theaters, television and radio. In this article we will analyze the play Loot, first performed in 1966, which received the Evening Standard Drama Award for best play of the year. Our main purpose is to see how its theme revolves around the questioning and the presence of evidence of what we call the “Authority” element, which includes other themes of the work. From that we will reflect on the definition given to the play as an anarchic farce, analyzing the question of genre and its link with the themes and readings the play radiates and makes possible. However, before we focus on the text, it is necessary to point the scenario where it takes place: the 1960s. It was during those years that major movements were strengthened in the wake of the idea of a counter culture. This movement started in the United States and inf luenced much of the Western world and especially the

32

literature British context. Expressions such as

and artists think and criticize its most

the student movement (as well as the

fundamental structures. In this sense, it is

black, hippie, gay and feminist move-

interesting to notice the degree of Orton’s

ments) started to gain more space, either

awareness of the purpose of his work and

through their political demands, or their

the means by which he would reach it: the

cultural production. Another relevant

theme recurrent in the various readings

point is the paradigm shift in moral and

of his plays – anarchy – already appears in

behavior patterns, which despite being

the epigraph of the work, which is related

considered unchangeable until this pe-

to the question of the social phenomenon

riod, were questioned by this new gen-

and the possibilities to change it:

eration. Mark Donnelly points out that there were profound changes in the British moral structure, although conservatism was still alive in that society. Thus,

LORD SUMMERHAYS. Anarchism is a game at which the police can beat you. What have you to say to that?

even if the idea of freedom summarized

GUNNER. What have I to say to it! Well

many of the period’s ideas, so much had

I call it scandalous: that’s what I have

to be called into question.

to say to it.

The historian Eric Hobsbawm

LORD SUMMERHAYS. Precisely: that’s

(2005) summarizes how this period of

all anybody has to say to it, except the

political and cultural movements helped

British Public, which pretends not to

to set the direction of arts and society in

believe it. (ORTON, 1990, p. 193)

the second half of the twentieth century,

The playwright, using a passage

in which theater had different purposes

of a play by Bernard Shaw, features what

and challenges. First, the author points

his work Loot reaffirms as its own topics:

out the place occupied by Britain, stating

anarchy, police, scandals, and the British

that the “British art panorama was con-

people. This little excerpt shows the play-

siderably more exciting [than the French],

wright’s awareness regarding the dispo-

especially because after 1950 London be-

sition of people and abuse of institutions

came one of the world’s leading centers

such as the police. In his view, this should

of musical and theatrical presentation.”

be the real scandal. The possibility of

(HOBSBAWM, 2005, p. 486, our trans-

anarchy then is the only one in the con-

lation). Therefore, the historian detains

frontation with the reality of society in its

himself on the changes and paths fol-

true constitution, hopeless and without

lowed by a culture that was, among other

everlasting values. However, as much as it

things, linked to the development of mass

is a potentially desirable reality, this game

culture and the academic world. After

can be lost for the police force, repressive

all, it is a society that, despite having wit-

and coercive. That is indeed what hap-

nessed significant artistic development

pens when in the play one of the charac-

from the 1950s on, still faces problems of

ters (Mr. McLeavy) is taken into custody,

social inequality that made intellectuals

33

revista YAWP despite his complete innocence. His fault

One of the playwright’s targets

after all is one of a deeper order, not of-

then is the hypocrisy that is personified in

fenses committed deliberately as the oth-

Fay and Truscott, to whom the values ​​are

er characters in the play. His only fault is

all reversed or simply do not exist. What

to believe the institutions’ supposed hon-

dominates here are the criminal minds

esty and commitment to the truth. In this

which have no qualms about associating

sense, he represents the British people

with each other to achieve their interests,

described in the epigraph, who prefer to

produced and encouraged by a rotten and

pretend and idealize, rather than stick to

degraded social context. Actually, what is

what they see just before the eyes: there is

good in society is minimal and in helpless

blame on both sides, corrupt institutions

situations – death (as Mrs. McLeavy) or

and those who insist on giving them cred-

imprisonment (as Mr. McLeavy). As stated

it.

by Christopher Innes (1992): The play itself is about a funeral

attended by the widower McLeavy and the nurse Fay. The son of the deceased, Hal, together with his sidekick Dennis, robs a bank and they intend to hide the money in Mrs. McLeavy’s coffin. Dennis, who works at the funeral company, has access to the body and Hal, to the keys of a wardrobe in which the body is hidden. The two characters plan to leave the building with the money. With this money, Hal wants to leave the country and buy a brothel, whereas Dennis wants to marry Fay. She, after all, discovers the duo’s plot and demands a share of the profits. In Act II, however, the plans of the three criminals are frustrated by the intrusion of the police inspector Truscott. Posing as an employee of a water company, he meddles in the affairs of the group, trying to pluck evidence against the criminals. Hal, who cannot lie, reveals the truth and then they propose a bribe to the inspector, who accepts it and eventually leads the widower to prison, who was not involved in the crimes.

34

Any innocence is presented as stupidity, all authority revealed as the source of chaos; and egalitarian principles only mean that everyone is equally corrupt. The whole society is a ‘madhouse. Unusual behaviour is the order of the day… It’s democratic lunacy we practise’; and ‘All classes are criminal today. We live in an age of democracy’. (INNES, 1992, p. 272)

Regarding the conflict, there is one between Truscott and McLeavy in Act II, related to the legitimacy of the arresting; perhaps in a deeper level, a conflict that puts on one hand the dead woman (Mrs. McLeavy) and the widower, – incorruptible and victims of the others – and on the other hand, the other characters, unscrupulous and willing to do anything in behalf of their interests. In this last conflict, there is the huge gap that exists between McLeavy in his pious intentions and the degree of crime that the other characters convey, opposing to him and making him pay for their crimes. In this sense, the conflict extends to the playwright and his

literature play, polarized with respect to the society

of its collective. In the play, the aims of

that is presented as conditioning and de-

Orton’s criticism appear as the religiosity

grading the behaviors of the individuals.

and the police force that are personified

In regard to time, we acknowledge

in the characters. The microcosm occurs

that the farcical genre itself demands

in a blatant and allegorical way, and is

nimble comedy, fast action and quick

also reflected on space, characters and

solutions. As a result, fidelity to the genre

the language of dialogues, full of puns

is maintained. Indeed, movements to the

and references of its period.

past or to the future would hinder the

At this point not only is it

purpose of the works of Orton, especially

necessary, but essential to draw a com-

Loot, which makes a direct criticism of the

parison between the play and the the-

society of its time. Therefore, what should

ory of Peter Szondi (2001) on the drama

be transposed to the stage was the order

and its crisis. As it is situated in the sec-

of the day, here, through the perverse agil-

ond half of the twentieth century, Loot

ity and caustic humor of the play.

is already beyond the breaks and the

About the space of Loot, the en-

attempts to rescue the bourgeois dra-

trances and exits are constant and such

ma studied by the scholar, related to

agility in movement helps create a pan-

the European context of the late nine-

orama of dynamic speeches in which

teenth century. Orton is bold and in-

characters are to talk in high turnover.

novative in his themes and content,

The core elements are the coffin, the

but “conservative” with the form used.

wardrobe – in which the body and the

Hence, we see the question of death, cor-

stolen money are deposited – and the

ruption, religion and crime dealt with the

door that allows continuous entry and

typical conventions of the genre to which

exit of the characters. Thus, while the

they belong.

restricted space freezes the movement

Looking closely at our object of

of the characters, the entrances and ex-

study we find that the play follows the

its give dynamism to the action and di-

Aristotelian assumptions, which con-

alogue. This is because in the farce – as

tribute to the characterization of a “well-

well as in bourgeois drama – the action

made play”. The unit of time is preserved

takes precedence over the other consti-

with the action going on during a single

tuting parts of the text, such as a fixed

day, as in classical tragedy. The unit of

space and, in this case, simpler scenog-

space is also adopted: the action takes

raphy.

place in a single space, that is, Mr. McThe space of the play actually in-

Leavy’s living room. In relation to the

tended to be a representative microcosm

unit of action, we can see that it is also

of the British society of that period. Of

maintained: there is only one major con-

course, all theater which intends to ex-

f lict in the play. Thus, the importance of

plicitly question society reproduces and

Orton seems to reside in maintaining

analyzes on a smaller scale the problems

certain formal conventions and explor-

35

revista YAWP ing a greater opening in term of themes,

based not on innocent situations, but on

questioning and problematic ones.

reality outside the stage, dissected by the

In light of the above considerations, we can observe that some of

playwright and handed over to possible reflections on the part of the audience.

Szondi’s ideas are manifested in Loot, while others are not. The primarily dialogic character of the play is not only present but also reinforced. Here we have a strong dialogue that makes the action go forward. There are few breaks

T

he questioning of authority figures has often been put into discussion in

bothOrton’s personal issues and plays. It

that do not compromise the flexibility of

is undeniable that his audacious charac-

dialogue, which is typical of the genre.

ter addresses issues and situations barred

There are not soliloquies or monologues,

by conservative traditions and customs.

or asides, which would endanger the dia-

Lahr (1990) summarizes this rebellion

logical structure and the absolute aspect

that puts on stage institutions and au-

of the drama. And yet, the playwright

thorities in their complete nudity and real

undertakes the mechanism to make the

constitution:

audience know more than the characters. These are faced with the truth gradually, the outcome is thus the great revelation to the audience. Still dealing with the bourgeois drama, even if the action progresses in a continuous present, its motivation is in the past events. For example, the death of Mrs. McLeavy and the looting by Hal and Dennis, which give conditions for the hiding of the money and the investigation of Truscott to take place, in exact concatenation towards the end. This, ultimately, on the other hand, could characterize a rupture with the similarity to the drama and its critical purpose. There is an exterior reference, that is, the criticism, which is only possible if there is something out of the drama that is explored, directly or indirectly, to be the object of questioning. In this case, the farce gains a character detached from drama, due to the production of a humor

36

The idea of authority and the critical apparatus

The comedian is a marginal man, someone who lives outside the boundaries of conventional life and acquires power (and danger) precisely because he can’t be controlled by society. Laughter is the message sent back from his cultivated isolation. Orton was a survivor whose brutal laughter as a vindictive triumph over a drab and quietly violent working class world. (LAHR, 1990, p. 11)

With respect to religion, the most representative figure of this criticism is Fay, who, under the cover of religion and concerned with the moral values ​​of Hal, hides her past of murderer and crimes in a hypocritical attitude in which, besides responsible for the death of her f ormer husbands, she ends up joining the others. As for the material interests, we perceive a close connection with the probl e m of moral values. This is because in their ea-

literature gerness to possess and run away with the

linked to religious criticism. Religion is

stolen money, Hal, Dennis and Fay have

the most questioned authority through

no qualms in the treatment of the body,

its most apparent expression: the reli-

which is taken as an object, less important

gious conduct. Fay is the major target

than the amount of money to be enjoyed

of the criticism in which the symbols of

by the gang of criminals, among which

her alleged religiosity are recurrent and

one is the very son of Mrs. McLeavy. Fi-

come in deep disagreement with her ac-

nally, when it comes to the criticism of

tions. The dilemma in question is the gap

the law and the police, the adopted exam-

between what is professed, but not put

ple is represented by inspector Truscott,

into practice. This is the case of Fay, who

who at least initially, was committed to

not only does not act according to the

his search and work to arrest the crimi-

morality she clings to, but also practices

nals. The corruption of an individual rep-

actions that are at the complete opposite,

resents the entire society, which is, there-

setting herself as an allegory of religious

fore, anarchic – though funny – enabling

hypocrisy.

the creation of an anarchic farce.

The religious references are the

So we detain ourselves in situa-

most diverse, and generally appear to be

tions and comical statements that have

challenged or profaned by the charac-

specific purposes in all the work, and

ters, in an ironic and sarcastic discourse.

which also have their own meaning

Apart from the obvious references to the

outside its context. These themes are

Catholic universe, they still appear in

therefore seized at a greater sign: various

the espoused values, in the images and

elements that make up the figure of Au-

symbols that run through the text. Thus,

thority, that is, the position that certain

we understand that the symbols do not

institutions and forces have, affecting in-

bring only an ironic aspect of blasphemy

dividuals and guiding their actions. The

and the difference between the expected

presence of such a figure is thus signifi-

behavior and the executed one. The reli-

cant, which plays the role of an abstract

gious references appear as symbols and

construct that, in the play, has practical

images in a physical sense, which seem to

implications: religious hypocrisy, abuse

be present in the lives of individuals: eyes

of power, dishonesty and greed, rupture

always watching them, something that

with moral values etc. and others, as well

is not a reason to prevent their conduct.

as the questioning of institutions such as

This leads us to the conclusion that nei-

marriage and mourning.

ther religious power nor the secular one, law and the individuals that follow them

The religious authority

T

can be fully trusted, since they can be cor-

here is no doubt in Orton’s choice of

rupted in face of more powerful authori-

the theme of authority and his ques-

ties in a corrupted world: after all, money

tioning, which is present in different

overlaps the moral and religious values,

ways throughout his work and closely

and justice itself.

37

revista YAWP McLeavy, as previously seen, fits

Among the commandments, for

perfectly in what Charney (2009) calls

instance, “thou shalt not kill” stand outs,

“mindless optimists and defenders of Es-

which was clearly overlooked by Fay on

tablishment values, especially law and

his personal path, as well as “thou shalt

order and empty ceremony.” (CHARNEY,

not steal” by the other characters. This, in

2009, p. 144-145) This elevates his role in

turn, is not only abandoned as it is from it

the play as a legitimate defender of consti-

that the other crimes are committed. Reli-

tuted power, which, in turn, is constantly

gion, which should be as law itself a kind

succumbing in the attitudes of individu-

of guarantee of order and maintenance

als. The other characters are defenders

of values, in the end, is also subject to the

of their own values and, therefore, repre-

real needs of individuals who gravitate

sent other authorities: McLeavy and his

around money. It is only with McLeavy

traditional values, Fay and her alleged

that religion, the only hope in face of po-

religious conduct and subordination to

lice degradation, proves to be useful and

the monetary interests, Dennis and Hal,

relevant. For the other characters, it is a

who have the money as major authority

game of appearances, an empty tradition

and of course, Truscott, who reversed his

that loses all value when confronted with

interest and revealed his true character,

the possibility of profit. The criticism is

from symbol of justice and commitment

then sharp and deep, revealing the hypoc-

to the truth to allegory of the corrupted

risy of individuals and questioning their

British society.

place within the social environment.

The fact that religion is itself an

Innes (1995) elucidates: “Society is

authority is something undeniable, since

presented as a madhouse controlled by

religions are known in their prescriptive

lunatics; and his primary targets are the

character in relation to their followers.

police and the Church “. (INNES, 1995, p.

Religion is, as the State itself, to which

432) In Loot this is evident when we no-

3 Cited in the

sometimes it is associated, a key construct

tice that the aims are the figures of au-

text in a dialog

that has the purpose of establishing a doc-

thority called into question by Truscott

between Fay and

trine, and how the faithful should live and

and Fay. In our view, it is in this play that

behave. It is known that within Christian-

this critical framework reaches its most

(she puts the

ity an important source of these values

complex configuration, since here the

embroidered

are the 10 Commandments, the list of be-

police and religion are not only criticized

text on to the

haviors that should be avoided and that go

for failing to adhere to their duty and

back to the time of immemorial primitive

commitment to values, but for other ag-

She was a great

Judaism narrated in the Old Testament .

gravating elements, as their fragility be-

believer in

In the case of Fay it is significant that

fore the authority of money, constituting

some of them”.

she points to the belief of the deceased

an apprehension on society that borders

and not to hers, constantly displayed and

pessimism about collective life.

Mr. McLeavy: “FAY.Here –

coffin.) – the Ten Commandments.

(ORTON, 1990, p. 212)

3

which, as we later discover in the play, is nothing great, earnest and true.

38

literature

The police authority and the law

clinging to these guarantees is denied to the widower, as the law, embodied in

his is the second element of author-

T

Truscott, is under the interests of the

ity that is explicitly called into ques-

subjects – which means that even the

tion. In regard to religion the most rep-

law is not free from the corruption of the

resentative figure is Fay, while in regard

individuals. If the subjects do not stop

to law it could be no other but Truscott,

being corrupted in exchange for benefits

who constitutes sometimes a kind of

and money, there is no possibility and

parodied Sherlock Holmes. Indeed, this

validity to the secular laws and religious

is the caricature of an investigative in-

codes, which are thus useless. Therefore,

spector, who goes piece by piece trying to

the undisputed model of confidence in

collect evidence and proof of the crime.

the power of law and police organization

In terms of character building, Truscott

is McLeavy, who accepts prison taken

is a great character, in which Orton puts

it as fair, since an established author-

much of his style, full of puns and ironies.

ity stated it, so that it should be obeyed

It is only when all are unmasked

blindly.

by the inspector that the legitimate sec-

According to the analysis of Char-

ular authority figure shows its real val-

ney (2009), there is in Orton the pres-

ues and Truscott undergoes a bribe. It is

ence of an “authentic ‘figure of authori-

the test for the police force to state itself

ty’”(2009, p. 144). In Loot this authentic

above the crime and establish peace and

figure of authority with institutional

security. However, it is not what hap-

power is Truscott, considering his power

pens. There is no space, neither in terms

on the other characters and his connec-

of religion, nor in the secular justice to

tion with an institution that is clearly

the accomplishment of the expected be-

questioned and criticized for its methods

havior. This corruption is therefore rep-

and practices. However, the text seems

resentative of the weakness of the police

to deepen the matter when one considers

authority, which is subject to crime and

that not only the inspector is an “author-

turns sometimes teaming up to it, when

itarian” figure and an authority. In fact,

advantageous situations appear together

the characters undergo institutions and

with dishonest individuals.

values ​​t hat exert authority; and money acquires

itself would be the “authentic” figure, the

greater dramaticity – or even tragicity –

only one that remains at the end. This

when opting to free the bandits, Truscott

applies to the gang of criminals, which,

leads McLeavy to prison. In the dialogue

in order to get the stolen money, under-

between them the law itself is repre-

take a s e ries of crimes, showing their

sented, which should be the guarantee

own subordination to the authority that

of citizens’ rights so as not to be arrest-

money represents in a capitalist and also

ed without evidence. Any possibility of

inhuman society.

This

critical

aspect

39

revista YAWP

The authority of material interests and of money

the laughter, the criticism; and the route of laughter is effective in setting the most

e saw that the aforementioned

W

deplorable situations that are still com-

authorities – i.e. institutions and

ical. The critical aspect is strengthened

forces that are configured as direct influ-

when we realize that if all crimes were to-

ences on conduct and behavior – are the

tally unrelated to the society to which the

most pressing targets of the dramaturgy

play is intended, there would be no laugh-

of Orton in Loot. Despite this central char-

ter. For this, minimal similarity must take

acter in the sharp criticism of the English

place, that is, even if the manipulation of

playwright, the characters are also sub-

the body is absolutely unlikely to happen,

ject to another authority: the material

in fact, the feelings that lead to it, such as

interests, the money as real authority,

greed and ambition, find strong support

determining their course of action and

in reality. This criticism, apparently masked

attitudes. Getting to this point we can out-

by comedy and laughter is, notwithstand-

line the criticism of Orton in its complex-

ing, incisive and complex, since it deals

ity, bases and targets. In face of a cruel

with two ancient institutions that, in the

world, in which the issue of money and

playwright’s vision are, in the capitalist

personal interests such as Hal’s, Dennis’

world, subject to the material interests.

or Fay’s prevails, there is no room for

What is amazing, nonetheless, in the dra-

noble and lofty sentiments. Nothing can

maturgy of Orton is this anarchic aspect,

save the criminals from proposing brib-

destructive, in which nothing remains:

ery to Truscott, or the inspector from

religion, law, marriage, values, respect

accepting it and taking McLeavy impris-

for the dead. All are subject to the power

oned unjustly. On behalf of money, the

and authority of money, which ultimately

moral values, which actually do not exist

triumphs and quenches the characters in

in the characters, are abandoned, as the

their brutalized eagerness to possess it at

commitment to religion and to law.

any cost and under any circumstances

Therefore, there is no love in the play; there is no place for respect and sacredness for the human being, even in its most precarious state, that is, death;

The farce genre

A

ccording to Pavis (1999), the farce genre has a character that, “usually

the interests overlap kinship and friend-

associates a grotesque comic and buffoon,

ship relations. It is the prospect of a life

a coarse laugh and a bit refined style (...).

with money that takes the characters to

The farce is always defined as a primitive

treat life (i.e., the death) of the deceased

and crude form, which could not rise to

with complete contempt, for example.

the level of comedy.” (PAVIS, 1999, p. 164,

This contempt functions as part of the

our translation). It is a description largely

comic element, being present there, by

guided by the critical apprehension of the genre over time, not necessarily focusing

40

literature on its characteristics and on the reception by the public. Pavis also establishes the origin of the genre: The etymology of the word farce – sea-

We must also take into account the definition of Sobrinho (1979) that points to some farcical elements kept in Loot, and others that are problematized and subverted:

soned food used to fill (in French far-

Respectability and the appearance of

cir) a meat – indicates the character of

respectability is an important condi-

strange body of this kind of spiritual

tion for the situation of the farce.

food inside drama. Originally, indeed,

Another common ingredient of farce

it was interspersed with medieval

is violence; a violence that may exist

mysteries moments of relaxation and

under the surface of a trivial situation.

laughter: the farce was conceived as

In the farce the capacity of judgment

what spices up and complete the cul-

is irrelevant, or rather in the course of

tural and serious food of high litera-

action, this ability is destroyed both in

ture. (PAVIS, 1999, p. 164, our transla-

the characters and in the audience.

tion)

The scenes of a farce should be slightly

We have already acknowledged that the farce as a popular genre, in fact, served as a way of relieving serious religious plays with laughter, configured as a moment of comedy, label with which it mingles. Pavis helps us in pointing out the differences between the sainete

accelerated, as in the silent film. According to Trussler the farce develops at high speed because there are no ideas to delay action. It would be impossible to convey ideas after a certain rate of acceleration. (SOBRINHO, 1979, p. 66-67, our translation)

(another light and slight genre) and the

The appearance of respectability

farce: “In the comic genre, criticism op-

is really what the play brings with char-

poses the farce to the comedy of language

acters like Fay, who, behind a mask of

and of intrigue in which triumph the spir-

seriousness displayed by words, makes

it, the intellect and the subtle word.” (PA-

us through her actions, realize that she

VIS, 1999, p. 164, our translation)

should not be totally taken seriously. In

Therefore, the low aspect of farce

this sense, however, the play as a whole

in contrast with the comedy of language

is subverted, since even if the comic and

is thus evident. In the farce, there should

appearance of a play excel, there is in this

be no space for a more rational and elabo-

dramaturgy an acute critical purpose,

rate comedy. With Orton, this assumption

responsible for the understanding of the

is, however, subverted. The farce consti-

play. Finally, in Orton, it is pertinent to

tutes itself in all its unpretentiousness

realize that, on the one hand he remains

and play, but also in the prominent work

in an established and popular form, and

with language that “elevates” the genre

on the other, this is subverted when he

beyond the playful and the comical.

uses such tools to criticize and point re-

41

revista YAWP flections on the institutions and customs

tongue a response to Truscott, mixing the

of his society.

feelings of the viewer / reader of the play.

In contrast, an important element

Esslin (1966), upon writing about

of the convention of this genre that is

the first production of the play, argues

maintained in the play is violence. This

that the work is not a farce, “it’s situation

is in fact recurring in the dramaturgy of

comedy, not wild and intricate enough for

Orton, appearing explicitly in Entertain-

farce, but with pace, a sprinkling of good

ing Mr. Sloane with death, for example.

lines, good parts”. (1966 apud SOBRINHO,

In Loot its appearance does not go so

1979, p. 68). As the text elucidates many

far as to murder (the plot begins with a

conventional elements of the genre and

funeral, and in this sense it is something

even if the playwright proceeds in an

that is already present in the play), but we

attempt to convey ideas in his work (the

note several times that violence appears.

“judgment” mentioned by Sobrinho),

One is when Truscott (twice in Act I) beats

characterizing it as not a farce is unthink-

Hal trying to extract the truth about the

able. In fact within the farce limits, while

money:

expanding its possibilities, Orton is lo-

TRUSCOTT kicks HAL violently. HAL cries out in terror and pain. TRUSCOTT. Don’t lie to me! HAL. I’m not lying! It’s in church! TRUSCOTT (shouting, knocking Hal to the floor). Under any other political system I’d have you on the floor in tears! HAL (crying). You’ve got me on the floor in tears.

him out of the tradition of farce, opens a new entry in the history of the genre in English. Following the reflections of Bigsby (1982) about the genre, we perceive that the theorist contextualizes it within the 1960’s panorama and in Orton’s own work.

TRUSCOTT. Where’s the money? (OR-

But the deconstruction of character

TON, 1990, p. 235)

has always been a standard strategy

In this point, we find what we had previously dealt with, that is, the criticism of law and police, the abuse of power which results in violence, which the excerpt above shows. Still working with the language in Orton, this is exacerbated in a mixture of comedy and tension. Thus, in the second line of Hal he makes us laugh

42

cated on a level, which instead of putting

of farce; and though there is, perhaps consequently, a strong farce element in absurdist drama, relatively little attention has been paid to farce itself as potentially a principal mechanism of the post-modernist impulse, or to the high priest of farce in the mid-sixties, Joe Orton. (BIGSBY, 1982, p. 16-17)

while we revolt, leading us as critics to

Thus, most of the farcical features

note the potential of the text to work with

are presented, the deconstruction of the

the comic instances in complex ways:

character, that is, its reduction to what

even being beaten, Hal has at the tip of his

is most precarious in his attitudes and

literature hence the comical and, in this sense, all

questioned in its fundamental values in

the characters in the play are, to some

the theater.

extent deconstructed. Again we take for

Finally we approach what Innes

example Fay, who is unmasked to the sub-

calls Farce as confrontation, in which the

sistence of her interests, which are what

idea of ​​farce takes a connotation related

really moves her: her “incorruptible” re-

strictly to the “purpose” of the play: crit-

ligious conduct is not real, her interests

ical power. Institutions, values ​​and social

are illegitimate and money-driven. After

sustenance are destroyed by the drama-

all, the farcical aspect is, in its most basic

turgy of Orton. The terms adopted by the

sense, in the action of the great confusion

critic are timely because they characterize

of the characters about where to put the

not only the form used by the playwright,

money and the body in an attempt to hide

the farce, but its main target, which is to

their crime. These confusions establish a

confront viewers with reality and its con-

game of hiding which is one of the most

sequences in the lives of individuals.

farcical sides of Loot.

Firstly pointing the relation of in-

Innes (1992), when dealing with

fluence i n Loot by Ben Travers wit h the

the shock that this destructive humor

play of 1 9 28 Plunder, Innes clarifies that

caused, states that “Orton farce turned

following the tradition of Travers, Orton

into a weapon of class warfare (...). The

was

sharp incongruity between subjects like death, incest or insanity, and their comic treatment was the detonator. His humor is always deployed strategically.” (INNES, 1992, p. 270) This description of the cheerful humor of Orton helps us to understand the uproar caused by his plays as Innes describes: “At first his plays were remarkably successful in provoking such an extreme response – even if critical appreciation of their stylistic qualities had already defused their shock potential less than a decade later, turning them into ‘modern classics’ by the 1975 Royal Court Orton season.” (INNES, 1992, p. 269-270) This highlights the contradictory nature caused by the production of his plays. On one hand they shocked, and on the other they were a commercial success, guaranteed by the bourgeoisie, which was, in fact,

Reacting against what he saw as having ‘become a very restricted form’ Orton parodied Travers’ formula for farce by taking it to extremes. So, while Orton was clearly working in the same tradition, he is also demolishing a recognizable type of theatre; this iconoclasm corresponds to his overall aim, which was to be provocatively outrageous. (INNES, 1992, p. 268-269)

What the critic points is that even though his work may be taken as a real artifact of political nature, observing his diary one realizes that for him “Politics was regarded as irrelevant: “Politics are dismissed as irrelevant, the only positive action being: ‘Reject all the values ​​of society. And enjoy sex. ‘” (INNES, 1992, p. 271) It is noted then that Innes builds his idea of ​​confrontation with society not so

43

revista YAWP much by a political reading of his work,

dience on account of their moral values,

but by the reactions that his themes

beliefs and certainties. This is discussed

caused, as well as his own personal con-

when we mention the effects and conse-

duct, which can be seized by the police

quences both of format – naïve at first –

reports and his diaries. That is why, for

and of the themes of the play – disruptive

example, he includes the well-known

to an audience accustomed to a certain

opinion of Orton about how to shock

type of theater employed until then. Con-

the audience, including sex in terms of

cerning other references, Innes delimits

content and in form maintaining the

the inf luences of Orton as Harold Pinter,

minimum realism in his works, even if

Bernard Shaw – something previously

the largest nonsense had to be set out in

explained through the epigraph – and

the most natural possible way. That is,

Oscar Wilde, condensing Orton’s contri-

the “contrast between the presentation

bution within this panorama of relevant

and the subject is the key element in Or-

playwrights and expressing his opinion

ton’s bran of farce” (INNES, 1992, p. 271),

on Orton’s production:

something that can be applied to Loot,

In Orton’s world, ethical principles

but referring to Entertaining Mr. Sloane

are merely counterfeit propaganda

when he says that “The setting of seedy

lies propping up an immoral society.

naturalism, and the use of a sentimental

At the same time, the fantasy ele-

comedy formula for a perverse action

ments in his work devalue its social

that the characters treat the perfectly ac-

criticism, making a negative state-

ceptable behavior, is designed to intensi-

ment even out of the imperative to

fy the shock effect”. (INNES, 1992, p. 269)

attack the society that victimized

Hence, we realize that Loot is em-

him as a homosexual. Indeed, in car-

blematic in an attempt to understand the

rying his principle of inversion to

function of farce, the intentions of Orton

its extreme the morality – for which

and the reaction that his daring drama-

society apparently stands indicted

turgy caused. The importance of Loot is

in his plays – always turns out to

corroborated when Innes says: “The key

be positive and applauded. Orton’s

to Orton’s approach [in Loot] is his way of

brand of farce is not so much sub-

treating conventionally tragic situations

versive, as a declaration of war. It

or disgusting as a source of comedy. This

embodies the anarchy it celebrates.

both trivialized public standards of seri-

(INNES, 1992, p. 278)

ousness, and used the audience’s laughter to challenge their moral principles”. (INNES, 1992, p. 270) As a matter of fact, following the conventions of the genre, the exaggerations and unlikely situations serve the purpose of causing Orton to shock the au-

44

The Anarchic in Loot

L

astly, we will concentrate on the definition given by Bigsby (1982) to Loot

as an anarchic farce: this categorization

literature implies a series of procedures, as well as

the authority is exercised by economic

identifies the play within the playwright’s

interests, that is, there is not in the text

work. On a more basic definition, closer

an institution or incorruptible authority

to the common sense, anarchy is a regime

that should be supported or maintained.

that is free from authorities and rules,

Therefore, it points to a reality in which

which apparently could be attested in

these bonds disappear and in which indi-

terms of suitability for Orton. From a for-

vidual interests triumph, in a perspective

mal perspective, we realize how much Or-

which is characterized by pessimism re-

ton does not stick to fixed forms, moving

garding society’s destinations.

through more extensive to shorter pieces;

Based on the above considerations,

transposing them to the radio, to the TV

we conclude that Orton produced a politi-

and to the stage; using comedy elements

cal theater and indeed he was politicized.

largely, but also not abandoning certain

What happens is that Loot is really an op-

tragic traits. However, if this anarchy in

position to the institutions, including the

this most basic sense seems to quickly

State and there is no institution, whether

adapt to Orton, as we deepen to the term’s

religious or secular, that survives man’s

definitions we understand the complexity

greed. Hence the presence of a pessimistic

of such an affirmation. According to the

view, which we could also consider in its

Dicionário de Termos Políticos anarchism is

contradictory aspect, in relation to anar-

a doctrine in which:

chism itself. In it there is a belief that man,

All forms of orthodox political action must be rejected. Anarchism, therefore, wished to abolish any legal order, especially the State, and create a society without authority and dominion, based on reason and nature, which would be achieved by the intervention of individuals in the social sphere through direct action. (KIELHORN, 1965, p. 15, our translation)

Regarding Loot, this definition leads us to realize the intentions of scholars such as Bigsby and Sobrinho, who consider the play an anarchic farce. The term itself appears in the play in the epigraph and is in fact present in the moral construct of the play, which actually does not exist. What the reader/viewer sees is a world in which there are no values and

in his organization without the mediation of a state power, would ensure that individuals could coexist without killing or exploiting each other. Here in the play this belief is minimal, since all criminals get away at the end, and what only prevails is their unprecedented greed. We take, after all, one of the various tasks of the term given by Bigsby in order to notice the anarchic elements of Orton’s legacy: “His regard for the symbols of public order, his unashamed concern with sexuality and his disruptive wit made him that rarity in English writing the genuine subversive, social and literary anarchist” (BIGSBY, 1982, p. 18). This anarchism that could be credited only to the literary aspect extends in Bigsby’s vision to the social field. It is hard to detect this anarchism without

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revista YAWP resorting to Orton’s journals and to his

zens. It is not the case that the criticism

personal worldview. However, what is

is empty, but his disbelief in man seems

clear is that this anarchism plays an im-

to settle the universe into anarchy and

portant role in the questioning that is

chaos, without any possibility of “hu-

undertaken in his plays.

manity”; remaining only the authority

Thematically,

the

playwright

and value of money.

finds no limits to his subjects that are

This subversion pointed out by

controversial and uncomfortable and

Bigsby is corroborated by the censorship

decidedly f lee from the small bour-

process that the play suffered in Brazil in

geois intrigues and dramas. Then ap-

1968 under the title O Olho de Vidro da Fa-

pears in his work the exploitation of

lecida. And even with the censorship the

the workers, crime, the desperate de-

potential criticism of the text was kept,

sire to keep up appearances, homosex-

perhaps because it has not been noticed

uality, incest, greed, disrespect to the

or because of the disbelief in the mobiliz-

dead, in short, a wide range of issues

ing power of the theater: mobilizer, not at

that are proposed not to be curtailed or

first, but inquisitive and insightful, abso-

enclosed in a really anarchic and very

lutely yes, whether in the 1960s, whether

typical attitude of the historical mo-

today.

ment of the 1960s. Bigsby, in turn, locates Orton and his play in a political questioning plan, since, in general, this anarchic position is associated to the left wing and therefore to an intense inquiring char-

Why don’t we just let go: rumination on prejudice in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Melina Valente1

1 English undergraduate student at University of São Paulo. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This paper aims a comparison between the rumination observed in the

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character Shylock, in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, and the rumination of our society addressing the issue of prejudice and anti-Semitism. Psychological aspects of the character were considered making use of the play’s metaphors depicting economic exchanges. The rumination is used here as a metaphor on how we could dwell over art and literature’s themes to reflect upon our society issues. Keywords: Anti-Semitism. Rumination. Shakespeare. Shylock. Zeitgeist.

A

s any science-fiction enthusiast knows, whenever we make a drastic time travel, some aspects are not very well brought in the same shape. As we take William

Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, written in the late 16th century, to our contemporary times, some of its aspects might warp if taken literally. That is precisely what stirs up accusations about the prejudice issues of the play and such controversy troubles contemporary audiences with the possibility of its anti-Semitic theme. But why cannot we stop ruminating over the alleged anti-Semitic aspect of the play as a major question? It seems it is worth the debate and doing so we can move on. Shylock is a complex character; on his ambiguity we tend to sympathize with him at the same time that we could consider that his obsessive, non-indulgent hate to-

2 Reference to

wards Antonio is a trait of his villainy. But in such politically correct times of ours,

René Magritte’s

our feelings are determined: it is wrong, wrong, very wrong to hate Jews and anything

painting

that might remotely suggest that, even a Shakespeare’s play, must be immediately sup-

“c’estn’est pas une

pressed.

pipe”, 1929 which makes clear that

It is essential to overcome the fact that Shylock is not simply a Jew, ‘C’estn’est pas

the object of

une juif’2 - he is a fictional character, which does not represent, endorse or create the

analysis is the

archetype of the Jews, neither instruct how anyone should act towards Jews, as well as

painting and not

how any Christians should behave. Prejudice is a matter of minority and evidently if

literally a pipe. Juif means Jew in French.

the Christians were minority, the play could also be regarded as anti-Christian, based on Antonio’s behavior, regardless the plot’s outcome. This rumination reveals the Zeitgeist of the present time and the anti-Semitic issue is the reduction of the discussion to where all the stigmas became leveled down. In such sense, the play might as well be perceived

Life of Ma Parker. Piglia claims that each short story has a hidden story within it, so the

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article aims to find these hidden stories and expose them. The article will also compare the short stories in their plot, and the social issues each tries to point out. Keywords: Short story. Alice Walker. Katherine Mansfield. Prejudice. Social classes.

R

icardo Piglia begins his essay Theses on the Short Story (2004) explaining that a short story always tells two stories: the explicit one, which is the one that can be easily

spotted on paper; and the secret one, told by fragments and hidden pieces. Alice Walker’s The Flowers2 tells the story of a little black girl who was having the perfect summer

2 The short story only contains

day. She walks around, picking flowers, oblivious to outside threats or antagonisms. Her

one page, hence

name, Myopis, is even symbolic - Myop as in Myopia, as in someone who cannot see the

why quotes taken

world as it is. As she walks, Myop eventually reaches a part of the woods that is strange to her. When she decides to return to the place she initially came from, she stumbles

directly from the story are not followed by the

upon a forgotten corpse. And then, she finally spots a noose, then another, then another,

respective page it

all “Frayed, rotted, bleached, and frazzled--barely there--but spinning restlessly in the breeze”,

can be found.

and so she puts down her flowers, and realizes summer is over. Summer is not over literally. What is over is the naive and tender illusion Myop used to live under. The nooses and corpse are representatives of the racism and segregation of the time, in which the body of a black person was not considered worthy. It was not a crime people would look into, nor was it something they cared about. There were even people, such as the members of the Klu Klux Klan, who believed in race superiority/inferiority, and through twisted and absurd points of views, believed aggression against black people to be right. This is the hidden story within the short story. The hidden story’s revelation is both the ending of the story and its climax; that means that the conf lict of the story is also a cause of surprise to the reader, since it is an encounter between the explicit (Myop’s walk into the woods) and the hidden (injustice and indifference towards black people). According to Piglia, the classic story, such as The Flowers, “narrates Story One in the foreground, and constructs Story Two in secret”(2004, p.1).

51

Katherine Mansfield’s Life of Ma Parker starts when Ma Parker, an old

‘No, I ain’t.’

woman who worked for a literary gen-

‘Yes, you ‘ave. Gi’ us one!’ (MANSFIELD,

tleman on Tuesdays, tells the gentleman

2006, p.244-5)

that her grandson was buried the day before. His reaction, however, is in no way euphemistic or sympathetic. Instead of showing warm feelings, he says “he hoped the funeral was a success”. All along the story he treats her terribly, calling her a hag, questioning her over the fact that “she threw things away” and feeling proud to do so. There is a certain animalization when it comes to Ma Parker; she cleans the apartment and in the end she goes home, or tries to. The interesting key element to the story, however, is that it keeps getting interrupted by Ma Parker’s f luxes of conscience, filled by her memories and her confessions. For example, in the beginning, while she takes off her shoes and rubs her knees, the paragraph ends incomplete, with ellipsis. We are then transported to her mind, and suddenly begin to witness a scene between Ma Parker and her grandson, in which he asks her for some money.

Later in the story, while she is heating water, she whispered to herself that she “had a hard life”, and another memory begins. These “interruptions” happen all throughout the story, and it is through them that the reader gets to know more about Ma Parker’s life. We learn that she started to work when she was sixteen, her late husband had been a baker and they had thirteen children (seven of which died). This is the second story we get from within the story – which proves to not be as secretive as the one in The Flower’s is the tragic life Ma Parker had and still had to face. By the end of the written piece, the reader discovers that she has become so marginalized that she believes she has nowhere to go. Based on this, we can assume that one of the main differences between Walker’s story and Mansfield’s (based on Piglia’s text), is that while the former has a hidden story that only appears during the climax (and ending), the latter in-

[…] That over, she sat back with a sigh

cludes another story which constantly

and softly rubbed her knees...

shows up and confronts the main one.

‘Gran! Gran!’ Her little grandson stood

Mansfield works with the tension be-

on her lap in his button boots. He’d just

tween the two stories, the memories of

come in from playing in the street.

a hard life and a current hard day, with-

‘Look what a state you’ve made your

out particularly trying to solve either of

gran’s skirt into - you wicked boy!’

them. Meanwhile, Walker’s hidden story

But he put his arms round her neck

is told by a very small amount of explic-

and rubbed his cheek against hers.

it text, sticking to the closed structure

‘Gran, gi’ us a penny!’ he coaxed.

(there is only one conf lict, which is the

‘Be off with you; Gran ain’t got no pen-

discovery of the body) and guaranteeing

nies.’

52

‘Yes, you ‘ave.’

literature that the ending of the story is a surprise.

a unity of effect (everything leads towards

Therefore, we conclude that Walker’s

Myop’s discovery).

story follows the more traditional short

On a different note, The life of Ma

story’s model, while Mansfield’s incor-

Parker, as a modern story, has a plot that

porates most of the modern short story

is constructed within the story, and which

characteristics.

has several conflicts, whether they take

Bader (1945) states on his essay The

place in the past – with the death of her

Structure of the Modern Short Story that the

children and her husband and also the

traditional plot has sequential and pro-

fact that she started to work from a very

gressive action (meaning it has something

young age – or in the future - with the way

that the reader watches being developed),

her boss treats her and the fact that she

which is the case in The Flowers. We get

realized that there was no place for her).

to see all of Myop’s trajectory right from

According to Bader (1945), modern

the beginning, when it is summer and the

stories are often called “plot less, frag-

world feels like a perfect place; during

mentary and amorphous” (p. 87), because

the middle, when she starts noticing the

people seem to mistake their technique

changes in the air; and then reaching the

for a lack of plot or missing structure.

end, when she discovers that what she

What happens in a modern story is that

called “summer” was an illusion.

the author will not directly state every

Bader also claims that the struc-

fact, but will try to let the reader figure

ture of the traditional plot is dramatic,

it out indirectly, and will appeal to what

and from the start of the story, the read-

the reader’s imagination can come up

er has a line of progression to follow: a

with based on glimpses, suggestions and

conflict, the hint of a conflict, or merely

implications. So, if we look at The Life of

a sense of mystery, that something is off,

Ma Parker it is able to see how much a

which is the case in The Flowers when

character’s actions can sometimes stand

Myop senses a different smell in the be-

for something much bigger. For instance,

ginning. The conflict can be external or

the way in which the literary gentleman

internal, and in Walker’s story it is defi-

treats Ma Parker - with a certain amount

nitely caused by an external factor, in

of superiority and disregarding for any

that case, the body and what it stands for

sort of emotional trauma she could be

- a symbol of racism. According to Edgar

going through - shows us more than tells

Allan Poe (s.d.), the classic short story has

us that social discrimination is one of the

to focus on a single character, a single

main elements of the story. Before her

theme, and it also needs to lead to one

flashbacks, Ma Parker is usually in a po-

single effect. We can see this exemplified

sition of solitude, expressing, through her

in Walker’s story, since it is about a single

actions or words, little things that reflect

character’s experience (Myop), it discuss-

her true state; for example, “She sat back

es a single theme (which is the loss of in-

with a sigh and softly rubbed her knees” (p.

nocence) and follows its linearity to form

244), it is almost as if we could see Ma

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revista YAWP Parker, with the weight of a lifetime on

the short story. We can say that the theme

her shoulders and the heavy and melan-

in Walker’s story is the loss of innocence;

cholic atmosphere. This is also a way of

how we are all eventually going to lose

exploring the modern structure, using

the naïveté and genuinely good vision we

actions and scenes to show, and not tell

have of the world. And we may say that

the readers (and hence making the read-

the theme in Mansfield’s story is how

ers themselves realize through their own

cruel and abusive the world can be and

thinking) what a character is experienc-

how unfair life is. Both themes, hence, are

ing. As Bader says, “The emphasis is not

about one’s relationship with the world,

upon the sequence of scenes, […] rather, it

how it may be easily shattered in a perma-

is upon their meaning.” (p. 90).

nent way, and how awful the world may

We can see that when it comes to

be to people who have done nothing to

the construction of the story, Walker and

deserve such punishment. Both themes,

Mansfield took different approaches; one

then, are related to the main character

followed the more traditional model, and

seeing the actual truth of the world.

the other the modern one. The stories are not, however, completely different.

Abstract: The idea of this article is to find images that would reflect the topics discussed in the chapters “Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices” (Hall, 1997); “The Spectacle of the Other” (Hall, 1997), “The question of cultural identity” (Hall, 1996) and “Cultura, língua e emergência dialógica” (Menezes de Souza, 2013). We intend to analyze the images related to Brazil, focusing on the issue of the perspective of the ‘other’ and the view of cultural identity language it entails. The seventy five first pictures that come up on Google when the term “Brazil people” is typed

and consequently some stereotypes related to it will be analyzed. Besides that, we have analyzed the power relation of the stereotypes and the mechanism of search in which researches on Google are based on. Keywords: Brazilian stereotype. Cultural representations. Cultural identity. Searching Engines.

T

his article aims to analyze critically some images in relation to cultural aspects and theories. Having decided to work with image associated with Brazilian people,

we have analyzed the seventy five first pictures that come up on Google when the term “Brazil people” is typed. It is important to point out that the research mechanism on Google is built according to our “interaction” with the website. If you type the same term today, the results may be slightly different from the ones generated on December 6th this same year. The images we click are considered to be more relevant, thus the reason why they appear right at the beginning. After the research, a chart has been built in order to help systematize the data (Chart 1). There are many interesting aspects when analyzing this kind of research. There are related results, which are also very interesting but will not be the focus in this analysis. Most of the pictures show young people, who may be related to the image of Brazil being a “new” country; it is also noticeable that Brazilians are seen as “blessed people”, always partying and being at the beach, for example.

ny Burgess and Lolita written by Vladimir Nabokov) and their film adaptations (Lolita

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(1962) and A Clockwork Orange (1971)) directed by Stanley Kubrick, in order to elicit and problematize social aspects portrayed by these manifestations, such as clash of cultures and free will. Keywords: Aesthetic. Art. Cinema. Literature. Stanley Kubrick.

A

ny kind of cultural manifestation may contain elements of the social context in which it was produced. It may even be seen as the product of an era, considering

that the particular characteristics and configuration of that environment – in that specific moment – may have direct influence on its creation. Literature and cinema are examples of how cultural manifestations may present readers and viewers to a whole set of social and historical elements and how these elements might bring to this audience the feeling of being presented to something familiar, something they have seen before in the real world, not only in the portrayed one. It can depict habits, traditions, rituals and rules of a particular society. Eisenstein (1996) has described one example of this event: We know how production, art and literature reflect the capitalist breadth and construction of the United States of America. And we also know that American capitalism finds its sharpest and most expressive reflection in the American cinema. (EISENSTEIN, 1996, p.196)

In this excerpt, Eisenstein illustrates how cultural manifestations, such as literature, may display social elements, and also how social aspects, such as capitalism, may use the culture industry in its favor. This happened although the cinema industry was still attempting to figure out a language of its own, as Eisenstein points out. Jameson (1992) also sees the relation between the culture industry – and its products – and the social reality in which it is produced. He emphasizes that any artistic manifestation is compelled to have traces of a society. Literature and Cinema have had close links for a long time, probably due to the visual elements approached by both, as well as the presence of a text (or a narrative) as a

63

revista YAWP guiding device of their experience. While

derer that put Humbert behind bars (in

literary text uses figures of speech, such

the novel, the place where he writes his

as metaphors and metonymy in order to

book). The unexplained crime poses to

materialize its content, cinema and its

the viewer a negative perspective upon

cinematic text appeal to visual aspects to

Humbert that does not happen in the

achieve the same purpose.

novel. Other than this first difference,

This paper aims to analyze two different

cinematographic

manifesta-

the movie follows the sequence of events as it is portrayed in the novel.

tions adapted from two literary texts. The

Many critics see Lolita as a work

movies are Lolita (1962) and A Clockwork

through which some aspects of the

Orange (1971), both directed by the North

American society may be analyzed. The

American director Stanley Kubrick, and

first relevant aspect of the movie’s narra-

the two literary texts from which the mov-

tion is the fact that the main character,

ies were adapted from are, respectively,

Humbert, has a cloistral life; although he

Lolita, writtenby Vladimir Nabokov, and

is in frequent contact with other people

A Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony

throughout the major part of the movie,

Burgess. This analysis intends to point

he has a reclusive lifestyle to what con-

out aspects of the individuals portrayed

cerns his own desires and expectations.

in both movies and their relations with

Whenever he is alone – usually writ-

the social context in which they are in-

ing – is the moment in which he can be

serted, based on the idea that these works

and express himself. He is, indeed, very

reflect social aspects.

cautious about the image he conveys to people; he has control over the way oth-

professor who is writing his memoirs while imprisoned awaiting trial for murder. In Kubrick’s adaptation, the order of the first event is changed; instead of starting with the preface by John Ray Jr., Ph.D., then a chapter dedicated to Humbert’s love for Lolita, followed by his description of his childhood, Kubrick’s movie has as the first scene the mur-

64

ers see him. He presents himself as a cultured professor and sticks to this image, loosening it only in cases of extreme emotion, such as when he reads Mrs. Haze’s letter. In this moment, he laughs compulsively demonstrating his scorn for Mrs. Haze. Kubrick’s choice to portray Humbert’s reclusive character differs from the freedom ideology that arose in the United States in the 1960’s, and from the freedom that enchanted Humbert about the new land. Humbert is the representative of the European culture, whereas Lolita represents the American one. She represents the freshness and the freedom of this culture, and such features

cultural studies and cinema are quickly identified by the European eyes that immediately get obsessed with her. At the same time that this new culture is admirable, it is also seen as vulgar by Humbert’s canonical eyes. Lolita and her mother, Mrs. Haze, are amazed by the American culture industry and, ultimately by Hollywood. They both admire the figure of Clare Quilty, who is the great representative

A Clockwork Orange: Is there free will? “Very hard ethical questions are involved,” he went on. “You are to be made into a good boy, 6655321. Never again will you have the desire to commit acts of violence or to offend in any way whatsoever against the State’s Peace. I hope you take all that in. I hope you are absolutely clear in your own mind about that. (BURGESS, 2000, p. 71)

of this culture in the movie. Lolita even has a poster of Quilty in her bedroom

The Tramp: “It’s a stinking world because

wall. The European man identifies this

there’s no law and order anymore”

culture as vulgar. The scene in which

(A Clockwork Orange)

Humbert meets Lolita – at that moment she was just Dolores – is an example of the encounter of two cultures. While he is hypnotized by the nymphet, the young girl is lying down on the garden, listening to a song that latter would get famous as “Lolita Ya Ya”. Humbert and Quilty form a double representative of the encounter between these two cultures. The first scene of the movie (that is continued in the last scene) may be seen as the clash of cultures, in which one attacks the other. Humbert literally kills the representative of the vulgarity of the American culture. Kubrick’s movie approaches the culture industry of the United States, and no one could know it better than him, as he was also part of it. His work managed to deal both with the demand of the culture industry and the elements of the cinema as an artistic manifestation, apart from its commoditization.

K

ubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was modeled based on the American ver-

sion of Burgess’s novel, the one in which the last chapter (chapter 21) was deleted. As well as Burgess’s novel, Kubrick’s movie may also be defined as atemporal, once its perspective on the “future” could easily depict the social context in which both works were produced, as well as the decades that came afterwards. The movie is, in fact, full of social historical issue from the 1960’s and the 1970’s. The imagery of fascism is represented, even if by an outdated approach. The apparatus of social repression, the control of this apparatus over cultures, the matter of free will, art commoditization (pop art are examples of this process both in the novel and in the movie) are some issues approached by the director. The movie denies the positive – and alienated – perspective of the social movements that arose in the 1960’s. For instance, although the sexual revolution happened, women are still seen from an

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revista YAWP objectified angle (for instance, the tables

toe-nails over what is the cause of

shaped as women bodies in the first scene

badness is what turns me into a fine

of the movie and the first attempt of rape

laughing malchick. They don’t go into

are only two examples from the first five

the cause of goodness, so why the oth-

minutes of the movie), as Rasmussen

er shop? If lewdies are good that’s be-

(2004) points out:

cause they like it, and I wouldn’t ever

Acknowledging a decade of progress in the professional status of women, Kubrick contrasts that progress with the debasement of women in the commercial world, in the arts, and especially in the mind of Alex. (RASMUSSEN, 2004, p. 113)

interfere with their pleasures, and so of the other shop. And I was patronizing the other shop. More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the

The sentence said by a drunk man

government and the judges and the

right before being beaten up by Alex and

schools cannot allow the bad because

his “drugues” friends, “It’s a stinking world

they cannot allow the self. And is not

because there’s no law and order anymore”

our modern history, my brothers, the

points out another constituent element of

story of brave malenky selves fighting

the movie: the issue of the social organi-

these big machines? I am serious with

zation (or order). Kubrick once said in an

you, brothers, over this. But what I do

2 The interview

interview2 that he believed that the movie

I do because I like to do (BURGESS,

mentioned was

was about free will. It is known that free

2000, p 31)

given by Kubrick to the film critic

will might interfere directly with a partic-

Michel Ciment

ular social configuration and this issue is

and is available

approached throughout the whole movie.

at: http://www.

Based on this excerpt, it is possible to depict Alex’s perspective of the world. This point of view is also portrayed in the

A culture has two aspects: the known meanings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested. These are the ordinary processes of human societies and human minds, and we see through

ity from procreation. This eventually allowed the space in which men and women, especially of the middle class, might ‘organize a personal life around their erotic/emotional attraction to their own sex’. Socio-economic conditions, therefore, produced the ‘the social space’ in which to be lesbian or gay (SINFIELD, 1998, p. 161)

de fato um caráter inovador na incorpo-

De maneira semelhante, pode-

ração e valorização de uma identidade

mos afirmar que a identidade drag – ocu-

que ainda insiste na busca de direitos

pante periférica até mesmo em grupos

civis – aqui identificado como o creative

gays – parece também ser incorporada ao

aspect do fenômeno analisado.

aspecto de consumo tão presente no pro-

Parece haver, entretanto, certa

cesso de criação do espaço homossexual.

reprodução de determinados aspectos

O próprio prêmio oferecido no programa

marcadamente conservadores que suge-

– 75 mil dólares para a campeã – compro-

re uma incorporação de uma identidade

va, em parte, essa aderência do grupo ao

inicialmente subversiva ao sistema capi-

processo de consumo.

talista de consumo e que, por tal motivo,

Associado a isso, percebemos

facilita a recepção do público e aderência

também que a ideologia da classe média

facilitada ao que se diz ser o mundo drag.

americana aparece reproduzida no dis-

cultural studies and cinema curso das participantes, que já estão in-

nante, ainda que esse conjunto de va-

corporadas às relações de meritocracia

lores supracitados esteja em constante

individualista e a ideia do self made man.

reinterpretação através de incorporações

A própria estrutura de um reality show

e reinterpretações. Raymond Williams

em que apenas uma das participantes

prossegue, no mesmo texto, discutindo a

pode vencer já estabelece uma dinâmica

importância desses processos:

de competição e conflito que parece, em última instância, uma potencialização da busca do lucro nas relações sociais capitalistas tradicionais. Além disso, algumas frases de caráter evidentemente indivi‑ dualista são repetidas pelo apresentador RuPaul com bastante frequência, tais como “And may the best woman win!” e “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love anybody else?”. De fato, podemos perceber uma série de práticas e valores que, em última análise, pertencem a grupos sociais hegemônicos. Sobre tais conceitos, Raymond Williams em outro texto intitulado Base and Superstructure in Marxist Theory, afirma que In any case what I have in mind is the central, effective and dominant system of meanings and values, which are not merely abstratct but which are organized and lived. That is why hegemony is not to be understood at the level of mere opinion or mere assignments of energy (...) It is a set of meanings and values which as they are experienced as practices appear as reciprocally confirming. (WILLIAMS, 1958, p. 9)

But always the selectivity is the point; the way in which from a whole possible are of past and present, certain meanings and practices are neglected and excluded. Even more crucially, some of these meanings and practices are reinterpreted, diluted, or put into forms which support or at least do not contradict other elements within the dominant culture. (WILLIAMS, 1958, p. 9)

Stanley Kubrick. In order to do so, we are going to analyze three movies released in dif-

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ferent decades of the 20th century: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Our hypothesis is that the movies can be interpreted as a continual narrative about a society that witnesses a period of modernization and social revolutions. However, its revolutionary claims and technological progress have not resulted in social achievements in the future; on the contrary, the same obsolete models of lives and institutions were maintained. The main revolutions of the century were succumbed by the modern capitalistic life, and the systems men built to help improving their lives became their own enemies and lords, turning life into a cycle of emptiness, repetition and lack of content. We based our analysis on Foucault’s discussion on the Panoptical Structure (FOUCAULT, 2004) and the critical contribution of Rasmussen (2004), Jameson (1992) and Chion (2007). Keywords: Kubrick. Modernity. Panopticon.

Introduction

I

t is a hard task to summarize the great scenes of the 20th century, in a few words, we

could say that it was a period in which the norms of contemporary values and insti-

tutions were established – but also radically questioned. Besides, as a great political, cultural and social change took place from the late 19th century, the modern period was

settled by the influence of rationalism, Capitalism, and a wide technological race. In spite of the positivist discourse of modern development, extreme violence (Great Wars, Cold War and local wars), social inequality, poverty and intolerance were widespread throughout the world over the 20th century, ruining people’s belief in a political structure concerned about population needs. We can consider this period as a scenario of opposite extremes; while whole countries were victims of poverty and hunger; others used the cultural industry to display their richness and modernization. As an answer to these conditions, many movements were organized in order to fight for the end of inequality and war, such as the Movements for Civil Rights in the USA, and the feminist and pacifist movement throughout the world. Besides that, a counter-culture also arose asking for change in social values and costumes, such as

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revista YAWP family, sexuality, and general behavior –

were responsible for putting families in

which should be not constrained by the

isolation in order to prevent any cases

traditional moral values.

of plague. As a result, these people had

Based on the discussions raised

their lives under the institutions control:

in the course of Literature and Cinema

while in observation, all their habits were

(2014), we believe that, among many oth-

known and their interaction isolated. As

er great works, there are three movies

the institutions controlled their lives, they

produced by the director Stanley Kubrick

had the power to establish norms for the

that deal with different questions about

community, which, step by step, would

how post-modern society handled this

have to be followed by its members.

historical background and how it affected life in general: 2001:A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. As each movie was released in a different decade – with leaps of 15 – 20 years -, 2001: A Space Odyssey in the 60s, The Shining in the 80s and Eyes Wide Shut in the late 90s, we assume that Kubrick began to hold a more enquiring position in 2001, to a total pessimistic perspective from The Shining to Eyes Wide Shut - as, in the period between the production of each movie, the filmmaker probably had the opportunity to observe society and its development in relation to the social movements, moral values and traditional institutions. We also believe that we can in-

The principle of this structure is an organization in which individuals taken under control have their individualities isolated. There is no communication and exchange of ideas, nor the transformation of personalities and values by social interactions; instead, all movements are controlled. As the cells have an opening towards the tower, it is possible to notice that there is someone observing and watching the prisoner’s actions, and as these prisoners do not know how often they are being observed, they keep constantly behaving themselves as a response to an unknown, but imposed order. According to Foucault, this effect leads to a feeling of permanent visibility, “É visto, mas não vê; objeto de uma informação, nunca sujeito de uma comunicação” (FOUCAULT, 2004, p. 166). Based on the hypothesis according to which the movies show how people became affected by modern society, we can also sustain that they deal with how individuals became prisoners of their own institutions, that similarly to the mechanism described by Foucault, consciously or not, disciplines people according to a permanent observation and general rules. For instance, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as we travel inside a craft in the outerspace,

believe that these examples can be associated with the mechanism of the Panoptican, as the characters model their behavior from the hypothesis of being observed by forces more powerful than theirs. In our perspective, while in ‘2001’ we observe the development of discipline by the mean of being observed and controlled, in The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut we can see such control through a subtle mechanism: the model of the modern capitalist bourgeois family and its sense of individuality, a mode of isolating people without the necessity of oppression. Based on the aforementioned discussion, we will analyze some basic features of the movies, such as, plot, characters, time, space and denouement, aiming to discuss how social changes and institutions’ power take place in Kubrick’s work throughout the decades.

Analysis 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2

001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, directed and produced by Stan-

ley Kubrick and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The movie that can be interpreted only as a Kubrick’s masterpiece in sci-fi movies can also be considered a framework of uncertainties of a world divided by war and technology,

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revolutions and moral traditions. In our

der. As the apemen discover technology,

point of view, it is a movie about ques-

they are saved from their enemies.

tions concerning the future of the world,

Moving from the first part, “The

a critical piece on the political and social

Dawn of Man”, we have a leap of time

scenery of its period and the utopia of the

that leads us to the ultra-modern era of

development, but at the same time of an

the spaceman. As we see the machines,

intensive control of men.

the spacecraft and its inner part modern

The first scenes of the movie take

architecture and design, the first impres-

us back to the life of our ancestors, the

sion is that technology and development

apemen. From the very beginning to the

achieved a high level of sophistication.

last scenes, we observe how the life of

However, when we witness the scenes of

the specie was developed through differ-

the humans we question ourselves: has

ent discoveries of their routine, affected

the technological development taken men

mainly by the most important of them,

to a different social configuration?

a tool made with bone. With the discov-

The main character of the first

ery of technology, the group of apemen,

scenes is Heywood Floyd, as we travel

which first had to fear their enemies and

through space with him, we can observe

hide themselves in caves, became more

how humanity achievement became

powerful and confident when facing

something boring and ordinary to men.

them. As stated by Rasmussen (2004), one

Being in the space seems like something

of the hard tasks of observing the ape-

normal for Floyd, no adventure or emo-

men routine is to see how they resemble

tion, just boredom. As we are in the fu-

men; their fight for territory and natural

ture, Kubrick could invest in a society of

resources (one of the great causes of the

changes, but that is not his bet, as we see

Great War I), as well as their feeling of joy

in the social relations inside the space-

by defeating and killing their enemies.

craft. Despite the feminist movement

According to the author, “Kubrick rubs our

struggling against workplace inequality

noses in the fact that apeman is, after all, our

during the 60’s and 70’s, there is no wom-

ancestor.”(p. 55).

an in a position of prestigie in the aircarft

As discussed above, we believe

scenes; on the contrary, when we come

that from what we see in the movie, the

across the meeting with the Russian sci-

apemen is the first group to fear being

entists, out of three women, only one

watched. As explained by Foucault’s dis-

speaks, and when Floyd talks to her, his

cussion, despite not being certain of the

main question is about her husband. Also,

presence of an observer out of the cave

there are no black people among the crew,

– in this case a predator – the apemen

which can be considered an irony, as the

condition their movements and attitudes

African-American Civil Rights Movement

according to their fears. The power insti-

had taken place over the decade of the 60’s

tution is settled by those who had more

- the period of the movie production and

force in the group, and they obey this or-

release - leading us to the reflection that,

cultural studies and cinema in this hypothetical future, their fight for

ations, when ‘felling’ threatened, can turn

equality would have not being achieved.

themselves against their own creators for

Another vital question to our analysis is the relation that men develop with

their own protection. Men became slaves of their inventions.

technology. At the same time that men are

Whereas in 2001: A Space Odyssey

the responsibles for the creation of tech-

we can witness men being watched and

nology, they are represented as dependent

isolated in the outerspace by the same

on it. Besides the fact that technology is

machines and institutions which they

represented as something boring and

have created, we believe that in The Shin-

common, man seems very dependent on

ing and Eyes Wide Shut, when Kubrick

it, as it was naturally a part of their lives,

gets really close to the expected future

not only as a tool, but as a mean of surviv-

– the movies were released, respective-

al. According to Rasmussen (2004, p.68),

ly, in 80’s and 90’s – he shows that the

“If great achievements are made possible

post-modern men are so intrinsically

by technology in the year 2001, once-simple

connected to the dependence on institu-

activities are made complicated by new cir-

tions that they do not need to be thrown

cumstances resulting from that progress.”

out of the Earth to be controlled and iso-

The extreme side of this control

lated from their own society. The two fol-

takes place in the third part of the mov-

lowing movies deal with the consolida-

ie: “Jupiter Mission: 18 months later”. In

tion of the contemporary institutions in

these scenes we get acquainted with

the decade of 80s and 90s, the so-called

HAL, an A.I. machine, responsible for

future expected in the first movie.

all the functioning of the spacecraft,

From our perspective, returning

including the lives of the crew. Besides

to the concept of the Panoptic, as the so-

being a sort of leader of the spacecraft,

cial rules were established through the

HAL knows the reasons for the mission

years, men had to suit their lives to what

to Jupiter – which is not revealed to the

was considered acceptable in their com-

astronauts.

munity, and if they did not accomplish

Just as in the earlier institutions

that, they would probably be excluded

described by Foucault, under the premise

from their groups. Consequently, men

of taking care of the spacecraft and the

have always been under the control of

crew’s lives, HAL has its artificial eyes – a

the social institutions that ruled them,

screen with a red dot in the center – ob-

and even if not being watched, as the

serving all the parts of the craft, and then

prisoners of the Panoptic Structure,

controlling man. In a conflict between

they have been afraid of being punished.

HAL and two astronauts of the crew, Bow-

Different from the prison cells from the

man and Poole, the machine, which, in

structure, we see a new resource capable

principle, does not have feelings, decides

of isolating the contemporary men from

to take Poole’s life. With respect to this

society: the individualist model and the

movement, we could say that men’s cre-

modern bourgeois family.

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revista YAWP In both movies, we have two fam-

waiting for her husband, she is tired of

ilies with this prior structure, one that

doing the housework, and her life is bor-

literally decided for the isolation as a

ing and totally dependent on a male fig-

form of improving life, and another that

ure. Physically, Wendy is not the typical

despite living in a huge city are prisoners

American housewife shown in the movies

of their own routine, whose social rela-

– probably that blond astonishing figure

tions were purely superficial or based on

– she is very tall, with a great black messy

relations of commerce and favors. In light

straight hair that contrasts with her pale

of this view, we could observe how a very

skin. Danny, despite being very cute, is

sophisticated structure can control lives

also a problematic boy. He is not happy in

not based on extreme actions, but simply

his neighborhood, he has got no friends at

on a diffused philosophy of life developed

the new school and he has a weird imag-

through the years that eliminates the idea

inary friend that, according to him, lives

of community and brings up the concept

inside his mouth. In this movie, even the

of modern family.

imaginary friend is not a typical child-

The Shining (1980)

T

the voice of his friend, we hear a weird

he Shining (1980) was directed and

sound that probably scares and takes out

produced by Kubrick, and co-written

all the pure image of the fantasies of the

by the novelist Diane Johnson. The movie

boy. As we get acquainted with their past

was based on the book written by Stephen

we know that he was a victim of physical

King under the same name, but present-

aggression by his dad, who had had alco-

ing meaningful differences in relation to

holic problems in the past. Despite their

the film. The Shining in a basic interpre-

problems, as long as the family is still in

tation can be interpreted as a common

the big city, they live finely together. How-

horror story about a family that goes to

ever, when they move to an isolated place

an isolated hotel in the high winter and

we see that the structure of the modern

lives moments of insanity and death. Nev-

family is doomed to destruction when

ertheless, it can also be associated with

they have to face only each other. The

the American historical background.

Shining shows the demystification of the

The movie tells the story of the

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ish figure. When Danny impersonates

traditional family and its perfectness.

Torrance family: Jack, the dad, Wendy,

As the movie starts, we see that

the mother, and Danny, the only son.

Jack Torrance is applying for a job in a

From the beginning to the end of the

hotel located in an isolated area in the

movie, we can observe that the Torrances

middle of the mountains, the Overlook

are the opposite of the typical American

Hotel. The history of the hotel involves

ideal family. Once more, we can notice

both sides of the American history, the

that, just like in 2001, it seems that the

luxury of its inauguration lived by the

period of revolutions have never hap-

aristocratic American elite of the early

pened in the world. Wendy stays at home

20th century, and the genocide of the

cultural studies and cinema indigenous North American communi-

actually dealing with a ghost story – one

ty, as the hotel was built on the site of a

concerned with the past of a nation. Ac-

Native American burial ground. The past

cording to Jameson:

is always part of the present in the movie – it is present in the Torrance’s personal life, as well as it is present in the haunted corridors of the Overlook Hotel. Besides the history of the hotel, Ullman, its manager and Jack’s interviewer, tells him that the last man who had occupied the position Jack is applying to, had committed suicide, after killing his wife and two daughters. The job consists in taking care of the hotel during the high winter, and as the hotel is totally isolated of civilization, in few months there is a high probability of Jack, just like the antecessor of the job, becoming insane. Upon the arrival of the Torrance family to the Overlook Hotel, we are presented to its structure, a huge and classic place, which brings in its decoration the history of the sophistication of a golden era– the early 20th century and the Na-

The Jack Nicholson of The Shining is possessed neither by evil as such nor by the “devil” or some analogous occult force, but rather simply by History, by the American past as it has left its sedimented traces in the corridors and dismembered suites of this monumental rabbit warren, which oddly projects its empty formal after-image in the maze outside. (JAMESON, 1992, p. 90)

As 2001 can be considered a bet on that the future would not present a great change in society, The Shining - which was produced in the predicted future - shows that, in fact, society had not become a better institution. While men became dependent on his own technology in 2001, in The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut men became prisoners of the institutions and the system they have created.

tive American Indians. As the manager

The Capitalist system and its mar-

of the hotel shows the indigenous dec-

ket machine made the cultural and the

oration, we can think about the feeling

critical production a product of its own,

of indifference shown by a civilization

– just as it does with everything that can

guilty of a mass extermination, who

be passive of making profit. As a result of

even aware of their past, shows the mur-

this movement, we witness a crisis in the

dered culture stamped on their walls.

cultural production which was victim of

The closer we get to the hotel,

the banalization of its themes. The emp-

the more we witness the visions of the

tiness of content generated a society sim-

little boy Danny, who, besides keeping

ilar to it, empty and meaningless. Accord-

the weird imaginary friend and being a

ing to Jameson,

telepathic child, also has visions of blood

(…) these depthless people, whether on

and dead people in the hotel. In spite of

their way to the moon, or coming to

all the clues that indicate to us that The

the end of another season in the great

Shining is a horror movie, according to

hotel at the end of the world, are stan-

the analysis of Jameson (1992), we are

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revista YAWP dardized and without interest, their

Stuck in the ghosts of historicity,

rhythmic smiles as habituated as the

Jack cannot end up anything but insane;

recurrence of a radio-announcer’s

the representation of the madness that a

drawn breath. (1992, p. 87).

whole society goes through trying to get

The ultimate expression of this emptiness is the attempt of Jack Torrance of being a writer. The reason why Jack decides to work in the hotel is to have time and freedom of mind for writing his book. Jack chooses the isolation as a mean for the expression of his thoughts and creativity; however, the same isolation is the tool for facing his fears when hallucinating about his past, and the past of the hotel. It is not ordinary ghosts that drive Jack into insanity, but the ghosts of the past, both of a nation and of a problematic social structure: the family. The insanity of Jack can be interpreted as the result of the pressure of being a prisoner of a given model of family, society and professional life. According to Jameson, the writer that Jack intended to be was not his own standard of being an artist, but a standard imposed by the massive American culture – which presented a model of a fashionable author of prestige (cf. JAMESON, 1981, p. 93). The piece of work that Jack was writing can be interpreted as the representation of a meaningless culture, made of repetition and lack of content. The ‘book’ was written only with one sentence: “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” – a portrait of the mechanical society which is always concerned with a repetitive movement, with no time for physical or intellectual healthy habits, including the act of thinking and reflecting upon their lives.

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rid of their obligations, roles and true desires. As there is no place for Jack in the emptiness of the present, his only choice is to go back to the past, where he can find a chance of leaving the isolation and belonging again to a community.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

E

yes Wide Shut was released in 1999, produced, directed and co-written

by Kubrick. The movie was based on the novel Dream Story, originally named Traumnovelle (1926) written by Arthur Schnitzler. This narrative was the last movie Kubrick directed before he died, and it can be considered a summary of all the questions previously raised in his movies. If in 2001, still in 1968, we saw the image of a man of the future dominated by their own inventions and institutions – watched and disciplined from their isolation and dependence - in Eyes Wide Shut, almost 30 years after the shot in the dark made by Kubrick, we have exactly the outcome of the future contemporary man. The characters of the movie also contain aspects dealt with in The Shinning. The emptiness and lack of content reach its ultimate point. In this film, we can observe not only the prison made by the system, but also the tools intended to control social life: money and luxury. The family represented is isolated in its own life in the big city, living with people they have only superficial relations with, basically mediated by materiality.

cultural studies and cinema As a denouement for the context

aristocracy were gathered, Alice and

presented in The Shining, the society

the doctor discuss their attitudes during

represented in this movie is made of the

that evening. Alice stayed for a long time

repeated pages written by Jack with no

dancing very close to an unknown man,

content; a society based on appearance,

while Bill was flirting with two models. As

money and status. Eyes Wide Shut shows

the dialogue goes on, Alice admits to Bill

the extreme side of the effective era of

that he could not be too pretentious and

capitalism, in which people were not only

confident about himself and her fidelity

prisoners but also slaves of the objectifi-

to him, revealing that once she almost

cation of the human being and their rela-

left everything behind, their marriage

tionships.

and daughter, because of a man she just

Apparently, the movie is about the

looked at during a trip.

life of a greatly known Hollywood cou-

This revelation moves Bill’s thou-

ple, Tom Cruise and Nicolle Kidman, who

ghts. Their conversation is interrupted;

played the main characters, Bill and Alice

Bill leaves the house as he needs to see

Harford. Just as in The Shining, despite

a patient who is at death’s door. As he

being presented to a typical American

leaves the house, his adventures during a

family, we discover throughout the movie

whole night begin. At first, he meets two

that they are also a problematic example

women, first the daughter of his patient

of this social structure. From our point of

and then Domino, a prostitute. When

view, regarding the prior movies, the fam-

he meets the daughter of his patient, she

ily is a recurrent theme in Kubrick’s work,

unexpectedly declares her love for him,

and in all of them, it is seen as a tradition-

and just like his wife almost had done,

al and problematic structure.

she promises to leave everything behind

Alice and Bill Harford is a couple

because of him. From our perspective,

moved by their image and status. The

the attitude of these women represent

first sentences of the movie are very im-

the uncertainty and instability of the

portant, as they define the superficial as-

marital life and the family. Despite being

pect of both characters. Bill asks about

apparently happy, both women do not

his wallet and Alice asks him if she looks

mind changing their lives for a new ad-

beautiful. Bill is a doctor, who always

venture.

uses his profession to profit from all dif-

As Bill goes through the night,

ferent sorts of situations, offering money

walking in the streets, disturbed by the

or asking favors from everybody around

images in his mind of Alice with other

him under the pretext of being a doctor.

men, in a kind of both real and surreal

Alice is an astonishing woman who al-

experience, he finds in the front door of

ways has her figure associated with mir-

a pub a flyer of a friend who would have

rors or comments related to her beauty.

a concert there at that same night. As he

When the couple arrives home,

meets his friend, Bill enters the major ad-

after going to a ball in which the local

venture of the movie: he discovers that his

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revista YAWP friend is going to play in a weird place and

As the participants identify that

then does everything that is possible to go

Bill does not belong to that ritual they put

with him. In order to go to this place, Bill

him in the center of a circle and start dis-

has to hide himself behind a mask and

cussing what kind of punishment could

leaves the center of New York to reach a

be given for his attitudes. At this time, one

distant region in which the party was go-

of the women suggests to make a sacrifice

ing to take place.

in order to them set Bill free. Bill leaves

The movie structure is all marked

the place with no clue about was going

by repetitions and dualities. At the same

to happen to the woman. That night he

time that we can interpret this process of

starts to go after clues about those people,

repetition as a signal of Bill’s oneiric state

the woman who offered to be sacrificed

of mind, we believe that this structure is

and what all that meant. The fact of the

a representation of the historical back-

matter is that as soon as Bill starts looking

ground of objectification and massive

for clues, he begins to be watched. As we

production of things. Not only are objects

approach the end of movie, we discover

and things repeated through the scenes

that Ziegler, the owner of the first party,

(Christmas lights, streets, masks, clothes),

was present in the orgy, and knows that

but also dialogues between people and

Bill was also there. He prevents Bill from

even the structure of the movie itself.

going after the meaning of that for his

The most important point of the process of objectification happens when

84

own safety and tells him that he had been watched since that day.

Bill arrives at the party, which is actu-

The structure of isolation in order

ally an orgy. The orgy is a kind of ritual

to take control of people’s lives reaches

in which all men are wearing capes and

the ultimate point in Eyes Wide Shut. Al-

masks as they have no individuality,

though being not prisoned in cells, people

and women wear just the mask, display-

admit their individualized positions with-

ing their bodies as objects. As each man

out hesitation. We do not really know

chooses a woman and the sexual ritual

who Bill or Alice are, as much as we do

starts, we see a society that reached its

not know who those people in the orgy

ultimate point of boredom. The scenes

are. The couple that seems so clear to the

of sex are extremely uninteresting. Men

audience is also a product of the objecti-

watch women having sex with no lust; all

fication of a society – Alice is purely full

the participants seem to be in a vegetative

of beauty and sensuality, whereas Bill is

state. The highest point of the objectifica-

associated to money and status - that is

tion is the masks and capes with no signal

all we know about them. The characters

of lives. When we look at the people we

they incorporate in society is also part

see bodies without souls, all covered with

of a structure; a structure in which one

similar masks: no individuality, no identi-

is being watched and has to be ready to

ty and no content – a massive generation

figure out a way to according to the rules.

of ghosts.

When Bill discovers that he was being

cultural studies and cinema watched, it is not a great surprise to him;

their own creation, reaching a stage

being watched is part of the game, and the

which men do not know how to survive

use of different social masks can be their

without the machine taking care of every-

means for surviving in this social struc-

thing around him. That is the same of

ture.

what happens throughout the movies with the political and social structure that society itself has been through: family

Adorno’s concept of culture industry and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra - or

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the loss of real - in the interpretation of Fred Schepisi’s movie, Six Degrees of Separation. This study will point out how the movie illustrates these concepts by portraying fictional and yet realistic individuals’ lives, conveying thus a criticism on the post-modern life style under the strong influence of values imposed by the media. Keywords: Adorno. Horkheimer. Culture Industry. Baudrillard. Simulacra.

S

ix Degrees of Separation tells us a story that takes place in New York and is centred on the encounter, and its further developments, between Paul, a poor, brilliant and am-

bitious young con man, played by Will Smith, and a high-society couple of money-coveting art dealers, Ouisa and Flan Kittredge, played respectively by Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. We do not know much about Paul’s background, but it is safe to assume that he is a poor African-American young man who is trying to change his life seeking social and cultural ascension by creating a new image for himself; a socially seductive image of an intelligent, well cultured and educated young man, son of a respected and influential Hollywood actor and director, Sydney Poitier. One night, Paul meets Trent Conway, an MIT student who gives him detailed information about people from his social circle, and who teaches Paul how to behave as one of them in exchange for sexual favours. Thus, by submitting himself to a process of commodification of his body, Paul gets the information necessary for him to build himself a new image. For that, he learns details of high-society people’s lives, their manners and their speech variant, and memorises culturally curious anecdotes and facts. All this to be able to simulate a different person, to become someone who would be accepted by the high circles of society, one that would belong to it. Around the 22 minute-mark of the movie, in his first encounter with the Kittredges, Paul is asked by Geoffrey, a rich politician from South Africa, how it feels being “black in America”, to what he responds saying he does not feel American nor black. This shows how radically different is the image he is trying to construct. The image created by Paul is one feature of the movie that can exemplify Baudrillard’s concept of simulacrum. For the philosopher, an image or a sign has four successive phases:

86

cultural studies and cinema it is the reflection of a basic reality

Paul seduces the high-society trio by of-

it masks and perverts a basic reality

fering them the part as extras in the al-

it masks the absence of a basic reality

leged cinematographic production of the

it bears no relation to any reality what-

successful Broadway musical, Cats, an

soever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

icon of pop-culture. Even though we find

(BAUDRILLARD , 2010, p. 1560)

out later in the movie that Flan dislikes

Paul creates an image that belongs to the third phase, since he masks the absence of a basic reality behind his image by sustaining it with forged facts that

Cats, he is fascinated with the idea of participating in its success, even if just as an extra. Peter Barry says that Baudrillard is concerned with:

correspond to the real world. He is very

‘the loss of the real’, which is the view

convincing in telling stories of his alleged

that in contemporary life the pervasive

father, a public and admired figure whom

influence of images from film, TV and

he knows by reading his biography; he

advertising has led to a loss of the dis-

knows many details of the Kittredges and

tinction between real and imagined,

other acquainted families and explains

reality and illusion, surface and depth.

with eloquence his alleged thesis about

The result is a culture of hyperreality,

The Catcher in the Rye. According to Bau-

in which distinctions between these

drillard (2010, p. 1558), “To simulate is to

are eroded. (BARRY, 2009, p.84)

feign to have what one hasn’t.”, and that is exactly what Paul does. He simulates having money, influence, academic education and even an identity dissociated from the social status of his skin colour. Around the mark of 28 minutes and 40 seconds of the movie, Paul gives a speech about imagination and how it is God’s gift to help humans cope with reality and with themselves. Again, that is what he is doing; by making use of his ingenuity, his imagination and the information he got from Conway and from books, Paul manages to live a completely different reality. Will Smith’s character intelligently endues his new identity with values and symbols of the culture industry which Geoffrey and the Kittredges admire and hold as glamorous. Besides his flattering character, politeness, erudition and famous father,

In that sense, Paul is not the only one creating images; the Kittredges also do that. They build up an image of an art loving, sophisticated and happy family around themselves when, in fact, their real interest lies in money. Their children, whom they barely know, do not like them. So strongly do they believe in the roles they play that they do not see themselves for what they really are. However, after Geoffrey agrees in raising the offer for a Kandinsky’s painting (35 minute mark), the Kittredges get elated with the prospect of making money. Their happiness is so that Ouisa says, “Who said ‘when an art ist dream, they dream of money’? God, I must be such an art ist.” and Flan compares Geoffrey (the source of the money) to God. This scene reveals their true selves; the art and cul-

87

revista YAWP ture they possess and know, for them,

change his status quo and ascend socially,

are just a commodity, simply a mean to

but he does not want money; even with

enrich themselves with status and capi-

all his cunning he only takes the neces-

tal. Their fascination with pop-culture,

sary to get by. It seems that what he re-

their covetousness for profit by selling

ally cherishes are the experiences he has

art, and the sophisticated image they use

and the things he learns. He also seems

as a facade for their business enclose the

to enjoy defying society’s values just as

Kittredges in the system of Adorno’s and

he does with the place or status imposed

Horkheimer’s culture industry; a culture

onto him. For example, when he goes to

that reduces art into a commodity, that

a fancy restaurant with Rick and asks

creates and recreates homogenized so-

him to dance. He is defying and criticis-

cial values and relationships, enthrall-

ing the conservatism of those bourgeois

ing the individuals’ consciousness, con-

in a much similar manner to that of the

tributing for maintenance of the status

modernist artists in the beginning of the

quo. The Norton Anthology of Theory and

twentieth century. This is in consonance

Crit icism explains that:

with:

The production of such art is also

[…] [what] Adorno would assert on

complicit with what Adorno and

many occasions, [that] the only legiti-

his fellow German social critic Max

mate form of art that can do some jus-

Horkheimer called the ‘culture indus-

tice to the immense suffering in the

try’, meaning the constellation of en-

world is the autonomous art of mod-

tertainment businesses that produce

ernism, which, through its apparent

film, television, radio, magazines and

detachment from reality, critiques

popular music – all phenomena creat-

the world as it is, holding up the prom-

ed by mass technology in which the

ise of a better future. (LEICHT, 2010, p.

lines between art, advertising and

1107)

propaganda blur. (LEICHT, 2010, p. 1107)

88

The greatest advantages in using the concepts of culture industry and sim-

By the end of the movie, Ouisa

ulacra when analysing Six Degrees of Sep-

wakes up from that hypnotized state

arat ion lie on the fact that they are at the

thanks to her experiences with Paul.

central topic of the movie and are com-

She then comes to the realization of how

plementary to each other. The first con-

empty her life had been, how it was re-

cept explores the simulating capability

duced into a quest for money and pres-

of signs, which is the essence of the later,

tige to maintain her life style. Even her

to create illusions that alienate their sub-

experiences with Paul had become a

jects from reality, depriving them of con-

commodity in the form of an anecdote

sciousness and criticism and imposing

to entertain and attract more buyers.

specific social roles and models. Howev-

On the other hand, Paul uses illusion to

er, the movie shows us, by Paul’s exam-

cultural studies and cinema ple, that human power of abstraction and imagination can also be used, according to philosophers such as Nietzsche and Adorno, in a critical, enlightening and liberating way.

A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). By looking at the portrayal of the

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family as a social institution, the analysis is focused on the tensions inside the nuclear family, as sexual tension in Lolita; repression and State’s machinery in A Clockwork Orange and social reproduction in Eyes Wide Shut. Keywords: Education. Kubrick. Nuclear Family.

Nuclear Family and its origins

T

he most basic sociological definition of “family” is the institution that binds people together through blood and marriage. In common sense, family is usually related

to “nature” and “law”, which is why it is so important to understand it historically, once “nature” and “law” are conceived by many as unhistorical concepts. The concept of family changes with time and place, and has mostly changed together with political systems in the western society. Phillipe Ariès (1965) argues that the family – as we know today, a private, domestic circle founded upon mutual affection – is actually a relatively new concept, developed throughout political and cultural changes in Europe. Ariès argues that “(…) in the medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist.” (ARIÈS, 1965, p. 125), showing that the process of formation of the modern and bourgeois family occurred through tensions which ended up being masked and considered forbidden inside of a family’s core, such as sexual desire, competition, and violence (ARIÈS, 1965; PERROT, 1991). As Ariès argues, the rise of attention and affection paid to children happened together with the rise of the modern European states, having France as example. With the rise of the state and the idea of citizenship, the emerging notions of childhood were consolidated by the new concept of Education, in which all families should give their children to undergo State’s care and education, establishing a demarcation of a specific stage of life. Such separation becomes important as means of surveillance and control, in which children are subjected to become moral and disciplined adults, as Foucault also argues in Discipline and Punish (1977). The general movement in which the nuclear family was constituted is from sociability to privacy, and in the seventeenth century, Ariès writes about the concept of childhood flourished. Therefore, this is also the historical moment that the concept

90

cultural studies and cinema of family found its first “full expression”

was through money that men were able

(ARIÈS, 1960). In the “full expression” of

to build their own little empires, un rêve

the nuclear family, the tensions inside its

arriviste, in which the consumption of

core were to be regulated or transferred

products were intense, such as cigars and

to different social places. Sexual desire

books, due to social status, and even pros-

was banished from the nuclear family,

titution.

since its true political and religious func-

The history of the nuclear family

tion in the modern state is to reproduce

is of great importance when it comes to

and maintain social structures, through

understanding and interpreting our so-

marriage, patrimony and law.

cial and historical moment. Most of the

The forbidden desire led to two dif-

research done by the historians from the

ferent aspects in the social role of women;

nouvelle histoire contributed to this new

firstly, the married woman had her role

paradigm, yet, new resources to under-

decreased, once her new social position

stand the social and historical tensions

implied a simple way of reproduction and

in society, and also in the nuclear family,

caring of her children, being susceptible

rest in fiction.

to be punished by law if she did not fulfill her social duties. Secondly, there was an increase of prostitution, now determined to satisfy men’s desires that were not to be placed inside the nuclear family. The social places of prostitution flourished and were placed in the world of men, who had to manifest its power in the public and domestic spheres. Perrot (1994) argues that inside the nuclear family the father’s powers were twofold. Besides dominating the public space with his political rights, it was also domestic to domain woman and children. If children did some “public offense”, or any kind of robbery, and was taken under State’s power to prison, the father had the power to refuse receiving them back, letting them in prison. Similar power relations were applied to women, who had no power to challenge men’s wills. Man is the master in the nuclear family. He is the master first and foremost through the power of money, Perrot writes; it

Family, Fiction, History

F

iction also deals with different concepts of family and it is a social and

historical record of those concepts. With the rise of the bourgeoisie, thus the rise of the novel, family was represented and depicted as the core of social life, once the bourgeois values were centered in the “family values”. Family is mostly the way in which heritage and reproduction is guaranteed, taking marriage as the official means of financial and cultural reproduction. The tensions masked by the historical and social organization of family are a common topos for the European modern novel, as we can see in Middlemarch, Pride

and Prejudice, Le Rouge et Le Noir, Madame Bovary, etc. The tensions – sexual desire, marriage crisis, violence, and cultural and financial heritage – are also explored and constitute one of the most important

91

revista YAWP topoi of the modernism movement; they

it deals with many issues, mostly pedo-

are mostly depicted and explored – social

philia. The critics of the movie tend to see

and psychologically – as in La Symyphonie

it as an amusingly condense of Nabokov’s

Pastorale, in French modernism, or in Mrs.

characterizations

Dalloway, in England. Such as in novels,

though Kubrick had to adapt the movie

films are also forms of representing and

because of the censorship. Both film and

questioning the social functions of the

novel are seen as an allegory of the rela-

nuclear family. In this sense, it may be

tion between the old and the new world,

even more fruitful to explore the different

the ambiguity of the traditional European

representations of family in a novel and

who faces the vulgarization of America,

its film adaptation.

even though he falls in love with it, he

The forms of novels and films register the perspective of a determined so-

and

themes,

even

finds it wildly inappropriate (SHELTON, 1999).

cial moment, and, as Adorno theorizes,

What interests us, in fact, is the re-

socio-historical content is embedded in

lationship between the conflicted mother,

artistic form (ADORNO, 1996). Therefore,

Charlotte, and her daughter, Lolita. Even

the study of such forms are of great im-

though Humbert’s forbidden desires for

portance to understand the meanings of

Lolita and its development are the focus

the nuclear family and its reproduction;

of both the book and the film narratives,

by seeing these forms sociologically, we

the analysis of this side tension may be of

may be able to interpret them as politic

great value for the interpretation of the

oriented forms of criticism of our con-

film.

temporary social life.

Charlotte and Lolita are in con-

Taking this into consideration,

stant conflict, both having Humbert as

Stanley Kubrick’s works Lolita (1962), A

an object of desire. In the film, Lolita is

Clockwork Orange (1971), and Eyes Wide

constantly interrupting the attempts of

Shut (1999) were selected to be analyzed,

her mother to attract Humbert, putting

as well as , the novels that were used to

herself as a barrier or questioning Char-

produce the films: Lolita, by Nabokov; A

lotte’s position as a mother. Much of the

Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess;

tension in the dialogues between Char-

and Dream Story, by Arthur Schnitzler, re-

lotte and Lolita are related to the social

spectively. The analysis of both novels and

expectations of motherhood, as Charlotte

films may be fruitful to understand dif-

is clearly in opposition to them, and Loli-

ferent ideas of nuclear family, its tensions

ta’s behavior.

and crisis, and even to offer a sociological perspective to interpret Kubrick’s works.

After the ball, when Lolita arrives and interrupts Charlotte’s moves on Humbert, Lolita asks her mother about

ily with Humbert; then with Quilty, and again in the end, when she is pregnant and married to another man. Little has been said about the family relation in both film and novel. Taking the traditional criticism on the film into account, the vulgarization of the nuclear family by American culture may be taken as a cause to the tensions between Charlotte and Lolita, since they are now able to move from their expected roles. Moreover, Michael McGehee (2011) argues that the tensions are the result of the liberal American family in opposition to the traditional European family, making Humbert’s desires possible to happen, even leading to the formation of a new family

A Clockwork Orange

A

dapting Anthony Burgess’s novel, Kubrick produced A Clockwork Or-

ange after 2001: A Space Odissey. It was the only film by Kubrick on the modern British society, later setting off a firestorm of protest from British conservatives and being banned by the British Board of Film Censors, which allowed it to a limited run. The film received the New York Film Critics Award, even though many important critics disliked it due to its ‘decadent’ content (NAREMORE, 2007). The clockwork metaphor has been a tradition in sciences, both physical and

93

revista YAWP social, by social control and behavior

ing parents, you’ve got not too bad of a brain.

modification, which has obviously much

Is it some devil that crawls inside you? ” (p.

to do with Burgess’s novel and Kubrick’s

20).

adaptation. Relevant criticism on both

Later, Alex is “treated” by the

film and novel relate the process Alex

Ludovico method, leading him to be a

goes through with the power and control

brand-new nice citizen. Having repressed

of State over individuals, mostly on the

Alex instincts and desires, the second

confluences of science and State.

part of the film is the visit to the same

In both, film and novel, the nu-

places and people Alex had in the first

clear family is in its borderline, as one

time. When he visits his family, he finds

of the important members of the family,

out he was replaced, mostly for financial

the son, therefore, the reproduction and

problems as it appears, but also for his in-

maintenance of the nuclear family, does

ability to fulfill his role as a son. Alex tries

not fit in the role he was supposed to. His

to react violently, but ends up controlling

violence, lust and disrespectful behavior

himself. The inexistence of any other kind

are no more a responsibility of the family,

of familiar help is something to be consid-

as the State interferes to control the devi-

ered in film. Alex has no alternative than

ant subjects, as Alex himself.

being under the nuclear family’s protec-

In the beginning, there are signs

tion or the State’s repression - work and

of caring by Alex mother, who could not

limited family relations are the centre in

dedicate herself too much to her son, due

which this nuclear family rotates.

to family’s finances, As Alex says: “ [It] was

The memory of family has been

true there being this law for everybody not

erased and is considered unimportant,

a child nor with child nor ill to go out rab-

grandparents have no importance in both

biting”. In the film, there is a dialogue be-

novel and film, and besides his nuclear

tween Alex’s parents, asking themselves if

family and the State’s power, Alex has

he was in fact working. There is the sug-

no one to turn to. Violence also happens

gestion of an economic crisis, as violence

inside the nuclear family, even though it

also rises, which families have to cope

was not manifested physically; the rejec-

with, even if it means rejecting a child, as

tion of Alex and also his manifested an-

Alex’s parents will later do.

ger on his parents happen as the result of

In the first State’s intervention, Deltoid appears as the “Post-Corrective

94

social tensions that are reflected inside family.

Adviser”, suggesting the traditional ways

As Gehrke argues, Alex “incorpo-

of social and moral coercion have failed

rated each new discourse and practice as

on Alex, that is to say, family and school.

he was incorporated into it, but in so do-

Apparently, the social structure in which

ing he has found new ways to please his

Alex is in should be enough to his educa-

desires. In the end, the modern goal of dis-

tion and social insertion, but as Deltoid

ciplining or curing violence simply suc-

says “You’ve got a good home here, good lov-

ceeds in opening new pathways to new

cultural studies and cinema forms of violence” (GEHRKE, p.149, 2006).

practice. Differently from the novel, there

Differently from the film, the British ver-

is a strong emphasis on the reproduction

sion of novel ends with Alex daydreaming

of the family and its values.

about marriage and fatherhood, which

As part of the middle class, both

may be seen as the successful interfer-

cultural and financial capital are funda-

ence of the State’s machinery to put Alex

mental to keep the same social position or

under control.

rise in a capitalist society. In the film, Bill seems to be on the pole of money and de-

Eyes Wide Shut

K

ubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut, is considered one of the greatest ones.

Most criticism on the film has analyzed it in a physiological perspective, but we should rather see it sociologically, as Kreider (2006) argues, “Kubrick’s films are never only about individuals; they are always about Mankind, about human history and civilization” (KREIDER, p.182, 2006). Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s Dream Story, both film and novel are important sources of comparison and historical content, and as Rosenbaum (2006) argues, “Kubrick made this movie convinced that relationships between couples have not significantly changed over the past seventy-odd years, and whether you find it a success probably depends a lot on whether you agree with him” (ROSEMBAUM, p. 246, 2006). The nuclear family is the centre of the narrative, whether inside or out of it, Bill’s, or Fridolin’s, in the novel, repetitive actions have this direction: he seeks satisfaction and then returns to his family, whether he had his sexual or financial desires satisfied or not. The relationship between parent and daughter happens with the suppression of any reference of an adult life, which is reduced to a schooling

pends on Alice to have his social position, having her both as a symbol of power – a beautiful woman in his possession – and cultural sophistication, since she has cultural knowledge, but due to financial problems was unable to have her art gallery working. The scene in which Alice teaches her daughter math seems to be mostly representative of the family relations faced in the nuclear structure - the important knowledge to learn is how to quantify the opportunities of money: “Joe has how much more money than Mike?”, Alice reads. Seconds before, Bill represses his thoughts on Alice betrayals and behaves naturally in front of her daughter, playing well his role of father. In the film, the focus on the daughter’s education is significantly stronger, as it is much more related to contemporary life than in Schnitzler’s time. In a sociological perspective, the efforts are for the rise or maintaining the same position of family in cultural and financial capital, and in a wider sense, the reproduction of family and, therefore, social structure and status quo. Differently in Kubrick’s adaptation, the novel ends with a type of renewal of family, while in the film, tension and finance capital reign.

95

revista YAWP

Family, Kubrick and the Uses of History

B

historical novel seems to be useful to understand the experience of individuals in

y the analysis of the three films, we

both novel and film, as the new patterns

can ask ourselves the social mean-

of social interaction in the novel reflect a

ing and perspectives they have to offer.

kind of ‘social amnesia’.

Considering their period of production

In Eyes Wide Shut, the nuclear

and the issues in which they are made

family seems to be the same as it is in the

in, we may interpret Kubrick’s works

novel, but the role of money is intensified

historically and sociologically. If we take

in relation to the Schnitzler’s time, as the

Kubrick’s works as a whole, the theme of

presumed liberation of women that took

nuclear family is treated widely. In 2001,

place during the 20th century had no ef-

the nuclear family continues the same, as

fect. “The simplest yet most universal

its foundation in the modern state, even

formulation surely remains the widely

though the film is placed in a futuristic

shared feeling that in the 60s, for a time,

time, social structure remains the same,

everything was possible: that this period,

while in The Shining the destruction of

in other words, was a moment of a univer-

the nuclear family is taken to its limits.

sal liberation, a global un-binding of ener-

From this perspective, we may draw a

gies”, Jameson (1984) argues.

line of socio-historical interpretation of Kubrick’s films.

The feeling of possibility and liberation is no longer present in Kubrick’s

From the films, we may apprehend

films, but there is a feeling of repression

that even after the massive changes in pol-

and the conservation of the nuclear fa-

itics, protests and liberation movements

mily. As the feminist movement and other

in the 1960s, social structures in the 20th

social movements in the United States, it

century, thus the nuclear family itself re-

seems that the 1960’s had never happened

mains the same. As a result of the events

in comparison to Kubrick’s work, and as

in the 20th century, mostly after the 1950s,

we could interpret it, the social achieve-

they may be seen as intensifiers of family

ments have disappeared or undergone

tensions, even though the social and polit-

a ‘social amnesia’. This social amnesia is

ical structure will always tend to preserve

mostly represented in the way Bill and Al-

and protect the nuclear family.

ice behave, reproducing the nuclear fam-

Historical content is embedded in the films, as the crisis in A Clockwork Or-

ily structure to the utmost degree, as it is intensified in late capitalism.

ange, which may be directly related to the

The reproduction of this social

social crisis that was taking place at the

structure means the maintenance of the

time. The power of the State’s machinery

status quo, thus, inequality in all aspects.

over the nuclear family and the erase of

Changes in the structure of the nuclear

memory is an element of great impor-

mean political changes, and the State’s

tance in the novel. Lukács’ ideas on the

machinery has as one of its functions the control and reproduction of family, in its

96

cultural studies and cinema financial and cultural capital, as we could

tions attributed to the institution of fami-

see in A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide

ly. Changes in social structure, moreover,

Shut. The result of the unresolved ten-

in the nuclear family, have great impact

sions and decadent desires lead to the end

in the relations of power and in politics.

of the ideal nuclear family or to problem-

Kubrick’s works offer a different view on

atic ones, as we could see in Lolita.

these social issues, rather questioning the

Understanding the nuclear fami-

so considered social progress and the as-

ly’s social history through fiction leads to

suring that a conservative society and

a wider view of tensions and social func-

capital reign.

Y

References ARIÈS, P. Centuries of Childhood: a

EYES

WIDE

SHUT.

Stanley

social history of family. New York: Vin-

Kubrick (Director) Format: DVD. New

tage, 1965.

York: Warner Home Video, 2008.

ADORNO, T. Aesthetic Theory.

McGEHEE, M. Lolita and Transat-

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota

lantic Family Structures. Nabokov Studies,

Press, 1997.

Volume 12, 2009/2011, p. 131-145.

BURGESS, A. A Clockwork Orange. New York: Norton & Company, 2011. COCKS, G. (ed.). Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film, and the Uses of History. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.

considered by many a minor movie in this filmmaker’s celebrated career. Characters and plot will be considered in order to show how the movie addresses a major topic in Cultural Studies, namely the differences between High and Low Culture. Keywords: Cultural Industry. High and Low Culture. Woody Allen.

Just Take the Money and Run? Nah, She Wants Class and Culcha. The New York Times, New

B

y the time Small Time Crooks (2000) was released, most of its audience and critics stated more or less the same verdict: quite simple and neat movie; not Allen at his

York, May 19th,

best, but one can have two or three laughs; a good pasttime, but easily forgettable. The

2000. Available

New York Times’ review (one of the most favorable ones about the movie) described

at
it as “naïf” and “silly”2 and The Guardian’s review called it “lightweight and shallow

nytimes.com/ movie/review?res

movie” with a “succession of cracking one-liners”3. In these good-but-not-enough and

=9C00E0DD143A

bad-but-not-enough sort of general opinions, Small Time Crooks (STC) was consumed by

F93AA25756C0A9

audience and critics as any other disposable merchandise produced by Hollywood and,

669C8B63>.

thus, completely forgotten in Allen’s long filmography.

3 BRADSHAW, P. Fun-loving

As a matter of fact, STC is far from being one of the director’s masterpieces and it frequently resembles Allen’s “early funny films”, since it presents us with a good deal

criminals.

of physical comedy, gags which are not so well connected to the development of the

The Guardian,

plot; and it does not feature a narrative full of formal experimentations - as we have in

cal-oriented plot - as in Midnight in Paris (2011) or The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)-,and nor a Bergmanian dismayal anguish - as in Another Woman (1988). However, if we want to have a better appreciation of STC, an understanding of it beyond a simple piece of entertainment, a deeper look at the issues that the movie raises is necessary. STC presents us with the goofy petit thief and part-time dishwasher Ray (Woody Allen), married to the former stripper and celebrity-TV-shows lover Frenchy (Tracey Ullman), who decides, with the help of Ray’s friends Denny (Michael Rapaport), Tommy (Tony Darrow), Benny (Jon Lovitz) and May (Elaine May), Frenchy’s stupid cousin, to open a cookie store beside a bank in New York, so these small time crooks could dig a tunnel in the store basement towards the bank safe and steal its millions. The thieves’ inability to carry out this operation is incredibly funny and it really catches the viewers’ attention.

David is also a kind of posh intellectual: he admits, a little bit embarrassed, that he did not study Arts in the

haute cuisine is disgusting for him; as a millionaire, he misses the days when he was an active thief. Frenchy, anxious for acquiring culture, warns him: “you better wise up, ‘cause if I grow and you stay as stupid as you are, we’re gonna have big problems, Ray”. The different paths that husband and wife choose to take in the second part of the movie is what unfolds the narrative. But we cannot watch this second part only as a simple narrative of disintegration of marriage and love growing thinner – a recurrent stage in Hollywoodian romantic comedies that the couple needs to go through before the happy ending, when man and woman get back together and finally realize they belong to each other forever. It is important for us to understand that the different lifestyles that Ray and Frenchy choose to follow are, as

101

revista YAWP a matter of fact, different cultures deeply

simplistic funny movie or a love story,

rooted in American social history. In oth-

although elements of these two genres

er words, different lifestyles that depict

are abundant throughout the movie. This

the differences between social classes in

possibly happens because Woody Allen

the United States of America.

knows that if he wants to keep making

As for Frenchy, we have already

movies that deal with serious issues (so-

pointed out how she represents the nou-

cial class differences, relations between

veau riche class, interested in arts only as

arts, intellectuality and market, for in-

adornment.

stance), with a minimum of profession-

We could argue, on the other hand,

alism (gifted actors, good production, in-

that Ray is bound to a lifestyle that resem-

vestment and distribution), these movies

bles the millions of working-class Amer-

need to have some commercial appeal

icans’. His habits, tastes and opinions

– and flat comedies and chick flicks are

frequently match the ones that the lower

highly profitable.

classes of big cities have, roughly speaking.

102

Towards the end of STC, the viewer is surprised (and so is Frenchy) by one

Some of these habits, tastes and

more turnabout in the plot: the accoun-

opinions that make the character of Ray

tants of the Sunset Cookies have been

a representative figure of the poorer and

stealing Frenchy and Ray’s money for a

humbler classes are explicit in the mov-

long time and now they have just become

ie: his despise of the “high culture” of the

poor again, losing their house and all

millionaires; his dislike for fancy gastron-

the other goods they owned to pay their

omy (he misses eating cheeseburgers and

debts.

meatballs for lunch, he enjoys drinking

“Fortunes, they change hands”, says

Pepsi and “sucking a Bud”); instead of op-

David. The changes of fortune in STC

eras, he prefers to watch TV shows and

are swift, unexpected. Frenchy and Ray

products of mass culture (he confuses

become millionaires almost out of the

the movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

blue and lose everything the same way

with Treasure Island); he is a baseball fan

– almost as if gaining and losing a huge

(a sport which is historically related to the

quantity of money was something usual

working-class); as a millionaire, he only

and natural, a minor and smooth every-

wants to go to Florida, swim and carry

day process. The tone of the movie – light-

on a simpler, non-affected and pedantic

weight, not very long, “easy” to watch and

life; he also spent some time in prison

understand, swift scenes, the soft and lip-

(the solution that the government and the

id tune of Benny Goodman’s Stompin’ at

incarceration business had found for get-

the Savoy playing all the time, narrative

ting rid of poorer people in America).

clean as a soap opera – may also help to

After addressing the issues that

contribute to this idea of “naturality” in

the movie very subtly raises, it is almost

the changes of fortune. Needless to say,

impossible to think about it again as a

much of this ideological notion is rooted

cultural studies and cinema in a society completely ruled by the logic of the capital in all its instances.

Does this victory of popular culture over high culture contribute to the

In this society depicted by the

happy ending of the movie? Was Ray

movie, everybody is a small time crook –

all the time right when he criticized

the accumulation of capital is decisively

Frenchy’s taste for refinement? If this is

linked to the practice of heist. Ray and his

a happy ending, and Allen’s filmography

friends are crooks trying to rob a bank;

is not full of them, it is not a completely

the police officer who catches them is a

satisfactory one.

crook when he covers the robbery and

Perhaps it may be interesting to

demands a share in the profits of Sunset

briefly remember the assumptions that

Cookies; David is a crook when he wants

Raymond Williams made about this phe-

to seduce Frenchy to have her money; the

nomenon called “culture” in order to bet-

accountants are crooks; Frenchy is also

ter understand this “happy ending” (and

a crook when she steals an expensive

even the entire movie).

cigarette case from David. When Sunset

The author of the classic Culture

Cookies becomes a highly profitable en-

and Society (1958), analyzing the Great

terprise, the company is presented on a

Britain of his time, strongly believed that

television show which praises its corpora-

what we call “culture” could mean an en-

tive success but does not question how the

tire way of living. Not only are the refined

company achieved it and became what it

arts part of culture, but also habits, tradi-

is (the original idea for the cookies being

tions, beliefs, non-canonical artistic ex-

only a façade for a robbery attempt).

pressions from the lower classes, etc - all

At first sight, the movie seems to end with a happy ending: husband and

of these could be part of the culture of a certain society.

wife get back together – David leaves

Williams opposed his more ma-

Frenchy after hearing about her bank-

terialistic and anthropological ideas

ruptcy and Ray fails in stealing an ex-

on Culture to the ideas of elitist think-

pensive necklace from the rich socialite

ers such as Matthey Arnold, T.S. Eliot

Chi Chi Potter (he steals the fake neck-

and F.R. Leavis. For them, Culture was

lace and keeps the authentic one in the

a realm apart from social life and it

safe, when he was supposed to do the

meant only the best and finest pieces of

opposite). Frenchy, disappointed with

art and philosophy created only by the

David, steals the valuable Duke of Wind-

best and the finest geniuses. Arnold, for

sor’s cigarette case from him and decides

example, described Culture as “sweet-

to go to Florida with Ray. They reconcile

ness and light”. For these thinkers, this

after she understands, disenchanted,

highly prized Culture should be protect-

that her f lirt with the high society world

ed by true gentlemen who were the only

failed and Ray was right all the time.

ones able to enjoy the spiritual richness

A very fake kiss (the actors’ lips do not

of a Shakespeare’s play, for example. In

touch) closes the movie.

Arnold’s opinion, in the mid 1860’s, “as

103

revista YAWP classes medias ascendentes são vulgares

all men and women could be able to at-

[…] e as classes trabalhadoras são, na me­

tribute meanings and values to cultural

lhor das hipóteses, filisteus ou, na mais

manifestations, understanding their his-

provável, ‘brutos e degradados’. Cabe en-

toricity.

tão à educação treinar uma aristocracia do espírito que dê conta de salvar o future” (CEVASCO, 2003, p. 44). Thus, this authoritative élite who decided what culture is and what is not, what true art is and what is not, these advocates of Minority Culture are reborn in Allen’s movie as the millionaire patrons of arts characters. If David and Frenchy were to end up together in the film, they would probably resemble the couple Frank and Queenie Leavis. For Williams, culture should not comprehend only the Great Tradition of arts and it should not be controlled and defined by a minority. Williams’ idea of Common Culture advocated for democracy and social equality. The poorer classes also produced their traditions and works of art throughout History and they should be taken into consideration as well as the works of that Great Tradition. Unlike many people say, Williams did not despise or ignore the Tradition and only enjoyed the productions of the working class. Williams respected all the literature that Arnold, Eliot and Leavis praised, but he believed that the access to this Tradition should be open to everybody, regardless of their social class. Towards an egalitarian society, the poorer classes’ productions and achievements also need to be seen and understood. A truly progressive society, as Williams wished, would be one in which

104

In Williams’ words: […] a Common Culture is not the general extension of what a minority mean and believe, but the creation of a condition in which the people as a whole participate in the articulation of meanings and values, and in the consequent decisions between this meaning and that, this value and that. This would involve, in any real world, the removal of all the material obstacles to just this form of participation. (WILLIAMS, 1968, p. 35)

Back to our movie, we can finally come to the conclusion that neither the Minority culture (David, the nouveau riche Frenchy and the patrons of art are its representatives) nor the lower class culture (Ray and his friends are its representatives) by themselves can mean true happiness for the protagonist couple. Let us try a dialectic argument: although she is consuming arts as supermarket products, Frenchy says she was a good student in high school (but she “could not afford the studies because there was always an emergency”) and, despite her dumbness, she seems to really make a sincere and honest effort to learn about this world of high culture. And what if she realized someday that these pieces of art have deep socio-historical meanings? What if she understood that they are not simply supermarket merchandise? What if she could suddenly see, after so much

cultural studies and cinema time in contact with the artistic world,

Would the lower class culture of

that Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, beyond

Ray, by itself, be enough for Frenchy to

a love story, depicts sexism in Victorian

find happiness at the end of the movie?

Age, for example? It is necessary not to ig-

That is difficult to answer. But we can be

nore the “finer arts”, as Ray does, in order

sure that a society ruled by a wealthy mi-

to understand that they might bear mean-

nority, and in which not everybody has

ings that may be used in progressive ways

access to the “great arts” and the culture

towards an egalitarian society.

of poorer classes are also not taken into

When Ray is warned about his de-

consideration - a society in which mean-

spise for the world of arts, he does not pay

ing of cultural manifestations are not

attention to the advice given by Frenchy’s

democratically discussed and the cultural

cousin, May (and neither do we, viewers,

industry keeps producing piles of trash,

for we tend to think that May is a “dumb”

while a feeling of anti-intellectualism

old lady):

grows fonder every day in the heart of the

MAY: “Maybe Frenchy wasn’t so wrong to try and make something out of it. You [talking to Ray] underdo everything! You

nation – this society is quite distant from achieving a progressive and revolutionary idea of Common Culture.

Abstract: The aim of this article is to comment on the culture of exclusion that is incorporated in American society. In order to study this “exclusion” practiced by the same ethnical group, three different characters of three different Stanley Kubrick’s movies were chosen: from Lolita (1962), the character of Humbert Humbert; from The Shining (1980), Jack Torrance; and from Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Dr. William (Bill) Harford. The commentary will also be supported by Claude Zilberberg’s semiotic theory on the

merican society has not been built as a culture of mixture. Multiculturalism and miscegenation were taboo concepts that the powerful white elite would avoid in

any circumstance, as seen in anti-miscegenation laws2 and the Jim Crow3 movement of

racial segregation, for instance. However, this analysis aims to comment on “segrega3 Available at:
tion” from a different perspective. The exclusion to be presented here is practiced by men of the same ethnical group. Similarly to the character’s situation, Stanley Kubrick

britannica.com/

was also an outsider: “As a Jew in a Gentile world, Kubrick would – like Freud – use his

EBchecked/

position as an outsider with a deep sensitivity to social injustice to expose the dark

topic/303897/

underside of society.” (COCKS, 2006, p. 189). Even in the filmic industry, Kubrick was

Jim-Crow-law>. Accessed on Jan. 22, 2015.

independent from the massive Hollywood system, according to Cocks (2006, p. 190). The three chosen characters for this analysis are: from Lolita (1962), Humbert Humbert, the European professor that falls obsessively “in love” with an American nymphet; from The Shining (1980), Jack Torrance, the wannabe writer that gets mad and tries

4 Available at:
to kill his own family; and from Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Dr. William (Bill) Harford, the money-man excluded from the rich society orgies.

nm0000040/

Despite the fact that Kubrick only read books for pleasure after he was nine-

bio?ref_=nm_

teen years old4 , all these movies are adaptations from novels that he had chosen to

dyk_qt_

film, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke and A Clockwork Orange

sm#quotes>. Accessed on Jan. 22, 2015.

(1971) by Anthony Burgess. Cocks (2006, p. 186) claims that all Kubrick’s movies “display a basic taxonomy: (1) violence; (2) systems of control; and (3) inherent human evil”. It seems that he wants to show that it does not matter who you are, human na-

In the present case, the analysis will focus on the culture of triage, due to

The analysis of the excluded char-

the fact that the aforementioned charac-

acters and the reasons for their exclusion

ters, at some point, are excluded from the

will follow the chronological order of the

groups or classes they aim to be related to.

movies, focusing on one character at a

Zilberberg (2004) claims that when an in-

time. It will also be supported by Claude

dividual wishes to move from his/her

Zilberberg’s semiotic theory on the Prin-

class to another one, it creates a tension

ciple of Exclusion and Principle of Partici-

between the classes and the presence of

pation. The next section will explain this

this single individual is then considered

theory briefly.

“weird” or “bizarre” to the other class. This idea is better explained by the follow-

Zilberberg’s semiotic theory

A

ing expression:

semiotic analysis is not the focus

SITUATION OF AMALGAM

of this article; however, an element

[C1 → [a,b,c,d] + [ω] ]

of Zilberberg’s conceptual framework

(ZILBERBERG, 2004, p. 85)

will be used to examine the situation of

C1 – Class

exclusion that the characters suffer in Kubrick’s movies.

a,b,c,d – Members of the C1 ω – Different individual

According to this aspect of his theory, all cultures are developed based on a range of degrees of acceptation, defined at its extremes by the concepts of unity – Principle of Exclusion --, or concepts of mixture – Principle of Participation (FONTANILLE; ZILBEBERG, 2001, p. 27). Therefore, depending on the way each culture reacts to outsiders, it can be denominated a culture of triage (from total exclusion to its relative prevalence) or a culture of mixture (from total participation to its relative prevalence). The ones that operate with the mechanism of triage deal with the opposition pure vs. impure, re-

If the different individual is considered an intruder or some kind of disqualification for the class (C1), as if contaminating it by his/her presence, he/ she is eliminated (operation of elimination – ZILBERBERG, 2004, p. 89) by the mechanism of triage. Consequently, the class (C1) will remain “pure” and the different individual will remain an outsider. Having briefly explained the concepts of mixture and triage, it is possible to begin the analysis and understand how the triage mechanism works in the American culture.

straining cultural circulation, whilst the mechanism of mixture respects the cultural exchange in which no opposition is presented. It is a junction of different individuals (FIORIN, 2009, p. 118).

Professor Humbert Humbert

N

aremore attests that, in Lolita, one of Kubrick’s aim was to create a paro-

dy of the “well-made Hollywood romantic

107

revista YAWP comedy” (2007, p. 101). Lolita figures as

All of these details make Humbert un-

a representation of the United States,

comfortable and disgusted when he is

which is considered young and beautiful,

around her; the only reason he marries

but promiscuous, vulgar and permissive

her is to be near Lolita, as he cannot com-

by the “civilized” European, in this case,

prehend her mother’s way of life nor the

embodied by professor Humbert Hum-

cultural principles she unconsciously

bert. His contact with the nymphet caus-

follows. Raymond Williams defends that

es in him a mixture of repugnance and

there is a mass culture and it is as valid

excitement, which turns him almost into

as any other cultural representation of

a slave-father figure to the girl. His con-

a class; he also points out the concept of

flicting feelings towards Lolita are most

hegemony, which presupposes the exis-

apparent when he grants her every wish

tence of something that is in its totality

as soon as they start living together, due

true, corresponding to the reality of so-

to the fact that he does not know how to

cial experiences. Charlotte, as any other

deal with the situation. He seems worried

American, lives in this hegemony fabri-

about being watched by the neighbors

cated by culture (in her case, American

(surveillance), showing that the USA is not

mass culture), that Humbert cannot com-

the land of freedom everyone looks for.

prehend. Charlotte is the only character

Humbert is a romantic and masochist – a civilized, anachronistic, alienated European who is excited by the philistine Lolita and enslaved by his emotions to such a degree that he becomes a servant to his captive. (NAREMORE, 2007, p. 111)

The American Industrial Culture is also something that bothers Humbert, also because he cannot understand it. Lolita’s mother, Charlotte Haze, is the greatest example of it. She falls in love with Humbert and does not make any effort to hide it; on the contrary, she struggles to make it vulgarly explicit. Charlotte is the mediocre representation of American middle class, she is a pseudo-intellectual housewife, who speaks foreign words (especially French), owns false famous pictures hanging in her house’s walls and loves Hollywood celebrities.

108

of the movie that truly accepts Humbert; therefore, she dies. Humbert faces his “arch-enemy” Quilty, the admired American celebrity who writes awful plays and asks Lolita to act in an artistic pornographic movie, besides being her lover long before Humbert. Quilty is nothing but a charlatan; he follows Humbert and Lolita wherever they go after her mother’s death. Quilty […] is a cynic and sadist – a writer of American television shows and Hollywood films who easily makes a conquest of Lolita. He whisks her off to his castle, tries to force her to act in pornographic “art” movies, and then casually tosses her aside. The master of every situation, he enjoys humiliating Humbert and makes wisecracks even when he is being shot to death. (NAREMORE, 2007, p. 111)

cultural studies and cinema Humbert feels betrayed by Lolita

Jack Torrance

T

que é exatamente

she had run away from him to stay with

an Indian cemetery) and the inferior role

que conhecemos,

the charlatan. And that is the ultimate

women play in society. There are many

reason why Humbert gets mad and kills

lines of interpretation for this movie: it

when, by the end of the movie, after she disappeared, he finds out that she and Quilty have kept a relationship and that

This ostentatious posture of the ruling classes, as Jameson affirms in the

SITUATIONS OF AMALGAM

plish. He wants to be respected and rich,

[C1 → [Guests, Ullman] + [Jack] ]

as in a mixture of Jay Gatsby and Fitzger-

[C2 → [American writers] + [Jack] ]

it, because it is his dream and he is the ruler of all, not the servant (the ghosts he creates are there to serve and please him, one of them even opens the door of the storeroom where Wendy locks him in). However, Jack is not as rich as Gatsby is and he is not as good as a writer as Fitzgerald was. According to the Marxist ideas on the division of society, there are two ba-

sic classes in it: the Bourgeoisie (owners) and the Proletariat (workers)6. Jack is a

britannica.com/

proletariat; he was a school teacher (an

EBchecked/

occupation that he seems to be ashamed

topic/367344/

of), and now he is a hotel caretaker. Stu-

Marxism/35147/ Class-struggle>

at Overlook.

quote above, is what Jack aims to accom-

ald. The ball scene is a great illustration of

6 Available at:

was supposedly writing during his “stay”

art Ullman, the hotel manager, is kind to

Accessed on Jan.

Jack and his family when they arrive in

28, 2015.

the Overlook Hotel; however, he makes it clear that they are nothing but employees. Ullmann points out that all liquor (of the gold Ball Room) has been from the premises, for insurance purposes another subtle reminder that the Torrances are employees, not guests. (RASMUSSEN, 2004, p. 245)

The situations above summarize the classes Jack is excluded from, and he is conscious of that. Perhaps that is the reason for his madness. It is possible to claim that he sees the reason for his dreams’ frustration in his family. Wendy, his wife, is mistreated by him; she does not stand for what she believes and seems to be a sadomasochist, because she never complains, being a submissive female character. She figures as the representation of the male resentment for the feminist movement in the USA at that time. Jack tries to kill her using a baseball bat in a madness burst, because she was spying his writings. His son, Danny, is also his victim. In the beginning of the movie, Wendy tells a doctor that once Jack, who was drunk, dislocated Danny’s shoulder because he was messing with his papers. From this moment on, Danny started to “shine” (see ghosts, spirits and talk to an imaginary friend, Tony). According to Rasmussem (2004, p. 280), all the charac-

Therefore, Jack will not belong to

ters that “shine” have this experience af-

the high level society he dreams of; he will

ter a moment of “emotional upheaval”. Wendy has it when she is looking for her

110

cultural studies and cinema son to protect him from his crazy father

is visible on screen; however, they rep-

with an axe. Another character that has

resent money and it seems that Kubrick

this special ability is the chef of the Over-

wanted to show it intentionally; the sec-

look, Dick Hallorann, who comes to the

ondary actors are much better at acting,

hotel to save Wendy and Danny from

though. The reification of people is the

Jack. However, Jack kills him, whereas

fuel that moves all monetary interests in

Wendy and Danny manage to escape

the movie.

from Jack, excluding him from his own family.

Doctor William Harford, or simply Dr. Bill (a suggestive name) is a social

SITUATIONS OF AMALGAM [C3 → [Wendy, Danny] + [Jack] ]

climber that, because of the services he renders, is invited to fancy parties, such as the one in the beginning of the movie,

This last situation explains that

at Victor Ziegler’s house. There he meets

Jack is excluded from his family because

an old friend, Nick Nightingale, who

he cannot deal with his traumas; there-

abandoned medical school to become a

fore, he lives in a circle he cannot escape

pianist. Bill is also “working” at this par-

from. Coincidently or not, he dies in the

ty when he is called to assist a prostitute

Labyrinth of the Overlook’s garden. The

called Mandy, who was having sex with

Overlook Hotel itself is actually one of the

Victor only because she has had a drug

movie’s character, as it is also a labyrinth

overdose.

created by Jack (studies were done to

In a conversation with his wife

prove that the spatial arrangement of the

Alice, she confesses to him that she once

hotel is impossible to be real). The Room

dreamt about cheating on him with a na-

237, the “haunted one”, is where Jack has a

val officer they met at a hotel they had

frustrated fictional sexual fantasy, similar

stayed during a previous vacation. Bill

to the other events he creates in his mind.

feels uncomfortable by listening to such

In the end, the only place Jack belongs

confession, and that is the point when his

to is the hotel, the materialization of his

“adventures” begin.

dreams, where he will rest in peace. The

After visiting a patient that had

fantastic remains until the last scene, in

just died, Bill starts wandering the

which Jack is seen in an old picture hang-

streets of New York in search of sexu-

ing on the Overlook’s wall, smiling at the

al experiences. He meets a prostitute

July 4 , 1921 fancy ball.

named Domino, but he cannot have sex

th

with her; however, he pays her a great

Doctor William “Bill” Harford

E

yes Wide Shut’s central focus is, in-

side and outside the movie, money.

The poor interpretation of the protagonists, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise,

amount of money. After that he meets his friend Nick, and finds out that he is about to play at another place that seems mysterious, considering that he has to know a password to get inside. Bill, excited by the idea of an adventure, insists on

111

revista YAWP going with him, even if it might ruin his

Before talking about Bill’s exclu-

friend’s life. In order to get the costume

sion, it is important to make a comment

he needs to enter this “party”, he goes to a

about the women in the movie. They

closed costume rental store. By offering

also play a role that suits Bill very well.

money and showing his doctor identity

According to Kreider (2006, p. 281) “al-

card, the owner agrees to help him.

most everyone in this film prostitutes

After this brief summary of the

themselves, for various prices”. There-

7 Available at:<

beginning of the movie, it is possible to

fore, the prostitutes - Mandy, Domino

http://www.

notice that Bill seems to control every-

and Milich’s daughter- that Bill meets

one around him, making use of his mon-

are also a representation of his wife, Al-

topic/367344/

ey and status; everyone is an object made

ice. All of them are beautiful, especial-

Marxism/35145/

to fulfill his interests. Bill has a great

ly Alice: “a former art gallery manager

Analysis-

apartment and has money to buy what-

who now stays at home to care for her

ever he wants.

daughter” (RASMUSSEN, 2004, p. 335)

britannica.com/ EBchecked/

of-society>. Accessed on Jan. 28, 2015.

8 Interesting to notice that the

He flashes his professional credentials and hands out fifty - and hundred – dollar bills to charm, bribe, or intimi-

name of their

date cabbies, clerks, receptionists, and

daughter is

hookers – all members of the vast econ-

Helena, which

omy on whom the enormous dispari-

according to Greek mythology, was the most beautiful woman

ties of wealth in America are founded. (KREIDER, 2006, p. 289)

and in order to “keep” her beauty8 , she is surrounded by mirrors in her house. The same concept of repetition mentioned above in Jack Torrance’s section can be applied here. For Bill, all the prostitutes are a repetition of his wife, considering he cannot overcome the traumatic situation he imagines of being betrayed by her.

However, he works in the service

Bill goes to the mysterious party

(Available at:

sector. He is not an aristocrat and this

Nick has told him, in Somerton mansion.

is very well illustrated in the scene that

mythencyclo

It is a kind of satanic orgy exclusively for

shows his and his wife’s routine; there

very rich people, who get there in limou-

is nothing “special” about it. It is similar

sines while Bill arrives in a taxicab whose

html>, 2015).

to Karl Marx’s idea of the alienated la-

driver he “buys” to keep waiting for him.

Therefore, when

bour, in Economic and Philosophic Manu-

it is said that

Everyone there wears masks, and so does

scripts, that “alienation of labour is seen

Bill, which seems to be a metaphor that

to spring from the fact that the more the

rich people always hide who they really

her daughter,

worker produces the less he has to consume”7. Bill has many things to consume;

are. The ritual begins, with a satanic-like

one possible interpretation is

however, not as much as he thinks. His

in the world.

pedia.com/Go-Hi/ Helen-of-Troy.

Alice stays home to take care of

that Alice’s only occupation in the

status may be powerful when he shows

movie is related

his identity card in a hotel or a hospital

to her appearance

to get information and special access, but

(reification).

when it comes to really rich people places, his access is denied.

112

music playing and the master of ceremonies saying weird words inside a circle of naked masked women. After some time, each of them chooses one guest and goes with him to other rooms of the mansion where they have sex. One of them chooses Bill and advises him to leave while he

cultural studies and cinema has time, because everyone will soon find

riors”, the prostitutes, save him. However,

out he does not belong there. But such ad-

he is not satisfied due to the fact that he

vice only makes him more intrigued and

did not get what he wanted; he would nev-

excited to be there. He walks through the

er be a part of Victor Ziegler’s class. Victor

rooms and watches all the luxury acts;

tells him, at the end, that he was at the

however, they do not have sensuality. The

orgy and that nobody there killed Mandy,

masked bodies make the sex practice ro-

it was just a staging to make Bill afraid. In

botic and mechanic, with no pleasure in-

this conversation at Victor’s place, he

volved. Using the theory of signs concepts

alerts Bill of his own place in society, “as a

by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure,

member of the serving class” (KREIDER,

they are all signifiers without signified.

2006, p. 292). He can never return to

Bill did not understand what was hap-

Somerton, because that was a place for

pening there, what the rich people enter-

powerful people and he cannot even men-

tainment was about. Understanding it or

tion who they are. “In other words, they’re

not, Bill is identified as an intruder and is

‘all the best people’, the sorts of supremely

excluded from there humiliated.

wealthy and powerful men who can buy

Upon confirmation that he crashed the orgy without an invitation, Bill is forced to remove his mask, thus revealing his individual identity in a situa-

and sell ‘ordinary’ men like Bill and Nick Nightingale, and fuck or kill women like Mandy and Domino” (KREIDER, 2006, p. 294). Therefore, the situation is:

tion where scandal could ruin his ca-

SITUATIONS OF AMALGAM

reer. Then he is ordered to remove all

[C1 → [Victor, powerful people from the

his clothes, which implies not only a

orgy] + [Bill] ]

loss of personal dignity (he is not, after all, being invited to have sex with other naked people) but possibly threatened with unspecified bodily harm. Torture? Mutilation? This bizarre crowd seems capable of anything. (RASMUSSEN, 2004, p. 348)

At this point his exclusion begins. In this situation he is saved by one of the prostitutes that surrenders in a sacrifice in his place. Afterwards, he learns that she was the woman from Victor’s house, Mandy, and that she died from a drug overdose. Later he also finds out that the other prostitute, Domino, who he did not have sex with, had HIV. Twice “his infe-

Bill’s exclusion of the class deals with his disqualification to be one of its members. His presence would spoil the existence of the class, considering that he is only an ordinary man. He has money to control people around him, but he is nothing but a simple member of the American working class that does not have power or influence to get an invitation to “rich people’s orgies”.

Final Remarks

A

s mentioned in the introduction, Stanley Kubrick was also an outsid-

er, such as the characters analyzed in this

113

revista YAWP article. In his movies, the human nature

trations: Humbert, the European, kills his

is shown as egotistical and violent, being

enemy Quilty, who he considers to be the

capable of doing anything to get what it

reason for his exclusion; Jack, the prole-

wants. Zilberberg’s semiotic theory is

tariat, tries to kill his family, but ends up

based on this behavior. People tend to

dying because of his own madness; and

exclude (mechanism of triage) what/who

Bill, the serving class member, who does

they consider different or disqualified,

not act violently, on the contrary, seems

and in America such mechanism was

cowardly afraid of what happened and

very explicit with movements of segrega-

hides himself back in his family.

tion and prejudice against “minorities”, such as women, homosexuals and Jews.

Abstract: In recent years, Africa’s political context has been characterized by the reinforcement of colonially-inherited laws against homosexuality. The arguments used by both supporters and opponents of such laws are linguistically marked by the

use of particular words that materialize their views on identity, morality and sexuality. These words can be found not only in traditionally opinionated texts, but also in those taken as neutral, such as news articles - in which the choice of quotations plays a role in the construction of meaning. This article attempts to trace the diffusion of opinions on homosexuality in the Anglophone African press by taking into account 120 electronic versions of news articles from four different countries and analyzing their vocabulary automatically in and out of direct discourse using a computer algorithm. The results show singularities of the debate in each of the four different contexts, which are argued to be related to legislation and social indexes. As a whole, differently from what is often argued, the results suggest attitudes toward homosexuality in Africa are not homogeneous, revealing a complex portrait of local cultures. A tendency for journalists to mark their opinion more through primary discourse than by the manipulation of secondary discourse was also detected. Keywords: Africa. Cultural Studies. Discourse Analysis. Homosexuality. Sentiment Analysis.

Introduction: Discourse and Media

I

t is often said that complete impartiality is unachievable, even though it should be journalism’s main motto. According to Bakhtin (1997), language is inseparable from

ideology: it naturalizes our perspectives, used as a standpoint for any statement we utter, being consciousness possible only through the adoption of signs shared by a specific community, and having meaning only within it (BAKHTIN, 1997, p. 31 - 38). The impact of this on the presuppositions and social role of journalistic discourse contradicts its own pretensions. Rather than the longed-for objectivity, one may find newspapers affiliated to a particular ideology, reproducing it and arguing against their opponents more or less openly. In spite of the romanticized idea of unbiased journalism being so widespread, the existence of explicitly right or left-wing newspapers comes as no surprise to readers, who may often prefer to read texts that match their own ideas rather than the ones that contradict them. On the other hand, newspapers hold power over their readers’ opinions, but can only do so by sounding trustworthy to them.

121

revista YAWP In fact, media is part of a wider so-

death by stoning, and Kenyan homosexu-

cial frame: they are not only senders, but

als to life imprisonment; however it was

receivers of discourses that circulate in

not approved. According to a 2014 report

their social context. By looking at media

by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexu-

in a particular region, it is possible to

al, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA),

characterize another social institution

homosexuality is illegal in 78 countries,

of that area and its ties with the bigger

out of which 37 are in Africa, making it

picture. Therefore, we believe that con-

the continent with the highest number

trary to a common presupposition, giv-

of homophobic states. Exceptional states

en the plurality of discourses and social

- such as South Africa, where homosexu-

contexts with which media discourse

ality was legalized in 1998 and same-sex

establishes contact, it could not be con-

marriage in 2006 - have their gay rights

sidered homogeneous, which is also true

laws constantly under attack by certain

about Western media itself. Even in cur-

sectors of society (MSIBI, 2011, p. 61-62).

rent times, when globalization seems to

One can argue the situation in South Af-

homogenize institutions, there is still

rica is not too distant from that of some

room for different presuppositions in

Western countries, including Brazil.

news coverage, as shall be observed in this article.

Even if at first sight harsh anti-gay laws seem to be a striking difference between part of Africa and the West, the

An overview of attitudes toward homosexuality in SubSaharan Africa

origins of these laws may be analyzed as having little to do with local cultures, and much to do with the West itself.

rather of a topic under debate, even if the fight sometimes seems unequal.

The last one is the most explicit in regard to its opinion. For them, the sub-

In the written press, this vast array of

ject of discussion is a “homophobic law”,

standpoints on homosexuality is revealed

where the pejorative term “homophobic”

through subtle language devices. This

marks an explicitly positive attitude to-

article has these language devices as its

ward the gay community. The difference

focus, discussing both the intertextual re-

between the other two is a bit more subtle:

lations they establish and how they relate

Reuters chose to put the negative-attitude

to their context of production and ideolo-

expression “Christmas gift” in inverted

gy. In particular, this article concentrates

commas, which indicates they are repro-

on how local Anglophone African media

ducing someone else’s opinion, not their

differs on this topic from global sources

own. Indeed, the sentence was said by

due to the singularities of its context, as

parliamentarians, although Daily Mon-

well as to which extent such differentia-

itor chose to use it as their own words,

tion occurs and through which language

without inverted commas or reporting

features.

verbs. In their headline, it is implied that

In order to clarify what is meant by

both parliamentarians and Ugandan cit-

“positive” and “negative” attitudes toward

izens want that bill to pass, that it is not

homosexuality in the press, and how

a matter under debate, but a consensus.

such attitudes are manifested through

Reuters’ headline makes no distinction be-

language, a Ugandan news article on the

tween sectors of that society: they are all

anti-gay bill shall be compared to non-Af-

Uganda, a unified whole. G1 refrains from

rican news on the same topic.

making such a judgement of the citizens’

The comparison between a headline

opinions.

from the newspaper Daily Monitor (2014)

On the body of the text, words, ex-

and the international sources, Reuters

pressions and quotes mark attitude.

(2012) and G1 similar headlines, can give

About the speech of a parliamentarian

ground to the assertion that this specific

in favor of the law, the newspaper calls

article holds a particularly negative at-

approving it “a point of national impor-

titude toward gay people. International

tance”. This shows a bias toward what

sources mark either an apparently neu-

comes next. Moreover, the parliamen-

tral or positive position on the issue:

tarian’s self-definition is quoted by Daily

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revista YAWP

126

Monitor without inverted commas, which

liament has 385 seats, but only the major-

again confers ambiguity to whether they

ity (261) that voted for the bill was given

are just reporting or manifesting their

voice, let alone the Ugandan population

opinion through his words: “Latif Sse-

and gay activists. Not giving voice to a cer-

bagala, who described himself as a chief

tain group in major media is a manner of

mobiliser of members of Parliament who

delegitimizing its existence. In contrast,

cherish our values, norms and religious

Reuters emphasizes that “rights groups

beliefs”. The possessive pronoun “our”,

have criticized [the bill] for its draconian

in this ambiguous context, conceptual-

penalties against homosexuals” and G1 af-

izes the parliamentarian, the newspaper

firms it has led to “international clamor”.

and its readers as one entity. The same

The text discussed above (as well as

meaning effect of unification can be seen

its linguistic features through which ho-

in the parliamentarian’s use of “our”: “we

mophobia is shown) is typical not only of

assure our people”. All of this would make

the Ugandan press, but of the Anglophone

an uninformed reader conjecture that the

African press as a whole. Nevertheless, the

demand the house is trying to approve

Anglophone African major press is char-

is very popular and that there is a lot of

acterized by a tension between positive

pressure on them coming from the pop-

and negative attitudes, considering that

ulation.

homosexuality is a topic under discussion

Moreover, the existence of “our val-

in these countries. To test such a hypoth-

ues, norms and religious beliefs” implies

esis, this article intends to mechanically

that someone else’s standards are in-

look for similar linguistic patterns in a

volved in the discussion. Given the afore-

corpus composed of major newspaper

mentioned discourse on how Africa and

articles from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and

homosexuality are mutually exclusive,

South Africa.

the implied counterpart is Western soci-

As for the role and impact of this kind

ety. In other words, this whole sentence

of text on these societies, the digital ver-

is a reiteration of anti-gay arguments cir-

sions of newspapers analyzed can only be

culating in that society. It is not a direct

aimed at an urban literate English-speak-

reference to their “values, norms and re-

ing population. The role of English in

ligious beliefs” as a whole, which would

most African countries is not that of a

certainly encompass divergent views, but

native language, but of a state language

only to the ones that apply to this situa-

more often used for institutional pur-

tion and that support the journalists’ po-

poses than everyday communication, the

sition on it.

latter being generally done in more than

Their choice of whose voices should

2000 local languages or in a local lingua

be included also reveals a bias. The only

franca, such as Swahili, predominant in

people quoted by the article are parlia-

the Lake Victoria region. This article shall

mentarians who agree with the law, as

not delve in literacy, urbanization and so-

well as the law’s text itself. Uganda’s par-

ciolinguistic matters, which vary among

linguistic studies the countries dealt with. Nevertheless, it

the mechanisms of communication it-

is relevant to notice that, according to the

self: an utterance only makes sense with-

2014 United Nations (UN) development

in a community, and can only be inter-

report, from the countries included here,

preted from the perspective of a receiver

South Africa has the highest human de-

within it.

velopment indexes, whereas Uganda has the lowest.

Similarly to the receiver’s background and world knowledge, which contribute to his or her interpretation of new

Theoretical framework and method

information, texts lay the frames through which a quote is supposed to be interpret-

his article aims to identify the atti-

T

ed by its intended receiver - in our case

tudes of each piece of news by its vo-

the newspaper readers. Such frames may

cabulary and direct discourse marks. Up

be more or less explicitly opinionated,

to this day, there is no computer model

varying from taking a source’s words as

capable of dealing with every factor that

absolute truth to conceptualizing every-

contributes to natural language compre-

thing as relative. There are also varying

hension. From the news article, one can

degrees of demarcation of quotes, from

notice perspectives are shown through a

complete isolation from the rest of the

number of linguistic elements: the choice

text to complete incorporation. These two

of the quotes, their setting within the ar-

factors - agreement and demarcation - are

ticle and the constraint of boundaries be-

mutually independent. For our purpose

tween reported speech and original text,

- defining attitudes - reported speech de-

the word choice and factors upon which

marcation matters inasmuch as it is used

lies the understanding of every linguistic

to the establishment of stances.

manifestation, such as syntax, pragmat-

To understand the linguistic speci-

ics, etc. These last aspects shall not be tak-

ficities of media discourse, specifically

en into account by the computer model.

the established formal features of news

As a linguistic phenomenon, report-

articles, as well as how opinions manifest

ed speech has been referred to as “dis-

through them, this article relies particu-

course about discourse” (BAKHTIN, 1997,

larly on the concept of boundary main-

p. 144), meaning that every sentence at-

tenance. It refers to the relation between

tributed to a third person in a text is in-

primary discourse (i.e. the text someone

serted within it not merely for the repro-

is directly exposed to) and secondary

duction of someone else’s words; they are

discourse (a discourse reported in the

called upon to be commented on, either

primary discourse), in terms of how their

to be condoned or condemned. Accord-

voices overlap. Such convergences and di-

ing to Bakhtin (1997, p. 148), a quoted text

vergences may be identified by looking at

has meaning only in relation to the text

features such as usage of direct and indi-

in which it is inserted. This fact ref lects

rect discourse, the setting of a quotation within a news article and word choice

127

revista YAWP (FAIRCLOUGH, 1995). In other words, this

article) and secondary discourse (the

article looks at how the formal features

MP’s utterance).

that introduce someone’s opinion in a

Regarding vocabulary, this article

news article reveal a stance toward that

subscribes to Bakhtin’s idea that signs

opinion.

are established, disseminated and have

The clearest voice overlap occurs in

meaning only within a certain communi-

the absence of a formal feature that at-

ty, being inseparable from an ideological

tributes a speech to its source, making

function (1997, p. 36-37). For our purpose,

it sound as if it were part of the primary

this means that it is necessary to identify

discourse. To refer to this kind of overlap,

words associated to a particular ideology

the term “unsignalled” shall be borrowed

in the specific context of African news

from Fairclough (1995, p. 57). This is seen

articles about homosexuality. The lexi-

in the Daily Monitor article headline. An-

con associated with a certain stance was

other kind of overlap is identified when,

elaborated based on the observation of ar-

in indirect speech, the reporting verb is

guments used on both sides of the discus-

2 It is

placed after the reported sentence, fore-

sion, as exposed in section 1.2., as follows2.

emphasized

grounding and legitimizing it. Fairclough

that all words in capital letters

cites the following sentence as an exam-

indicate lexemes.

ple: “The evil traffickers are the most seri-

Each of them

ous peace-time threat to Britain, warned a

includes every

top team of MPs” (1995, p. 59).

pertinent form of that particular

Finally, convergence and divergence

unit. For example:

of voices may be spotted by the local-

HARASS

ization of marked words, such as “gift”

includes “harass”,

mentioned above, as well as marked re-

“harassed”, “harassing” and “harassment”.

porting clauses such as “raising a point of national importance” and adjectives in general. The usage of marked words without inverted commas (either unsignalled or signalled by indirect discourse) is a strong indicator of attitude. Consider, for instance, the news article passage from the Daily Monitor on Latif Ssebagala, “who described himself as a chief mobiliser of members of Parliament who cherish our values, norms and religious beliefs”. The vocabulary here reveals an attitude, but it is the ab-

es a variable’s value by one, whereas a positive word increases it by one. After all occurrences have been considered, the variable corresponding to LBM has primacy over the other one in the final verdict. If it is higher than 1, the article is considered to have a positive attitude toward homosexuality. The opposite happens if the value is lower than -1. If the value lies between -1 and 1, the article is considered to be ambiguous. In that case, the HBM variable is analyzed, to check whether the news article is biased toward quotations with a particular at-

T

he results obtained through the algorithm were as follows. For each news-

linguistic studies South African newspapers: Sowetan: Positive bias: 9. Negative bias: 2. Overall corpus bias: 7. Times: Positive bias: 6. Negative bias: 1. Overall corpus bias: 5. It follows that the results form a continuum from Ugandan newspapers to South African ones, with Kenya and Nigeria in a debate zone. Such diversified results, rather than tendentious ones, reinforce the original hypothesis of this article: although the treatment of homosexuality by the local press differs from that of globalized sources, gay rights are not unanimously opposed by the media. Even in places where it is criminalized, homosexuality is a topic under heated discussion, with an openness that surpasses that of Western society before social movements came into play. The results for Kenya and Nigeria would suggest that these are the countries where homosexuality is more ambivalent, at least when it comes to the media. Uganda and South Africa would be the most conservative and progressive ones, respectively. Indeed, these results correlate with a number of factors of such countries. Uganda’s hype around death penalty for gay people and South Africa’s legalization of same-sex marriage are the most evident ones. It is also relevant that these results match the human development indexes of these countries: the lower the HDI, the more homosexuality is opposed. Nigeria, where laws criminalizing public display of affection between people of the same gender and gay rights groups were recently approved, on the

grounds that anti-gay sentiment is unanimous, has results that show more complexity in what concerns journalism. Adetiba’s (2014) opinion article on the gay bill is a manifest example of a counterpoint to the alleged unanimity in Nigeria. Apart from the growing cultural interest on the theme, as seen from Nollywood, Google statistics show that Nigeria is the third country where the term “gay sex pics” is searched more often, the second being South Africa and the first Kenya (METRO, 2014). Internet access has to be taken into account when interpreting these data, as it is more widespread in these three countries than in Uganda, for example. Kenya comes across as slightly more open to the subject of homosexuality. On the Kenyan newspapers analyzed, examples of opinion articles favorable to homosexuality abound, in spite of anti-gay legislation in force. Take Mutua (2015) as a recent example. Therefore,

the

results

obtained

from news articles offer a representation of media stances on homosexuality which corroborates trends observed in opinion articles and other local cultural and legislative elements. News articles reveal the attitudes of the society they are inserted in, including their likes, dislikes, and uncertainties. All of these are manifested through words, established within communities to whom the world functions in a particular way. It might be argued that words naturalize points of view, transforming abstract ideas into what social groups perceive as concrete elements of their lives, even if they cannot be perceived as concrete by another

131

revista YAWP social group. Therefore, words and opin-

positive and the other, negative. This

ions reveal to have a strong connection,

suggests a pattern on how HBM and LBM

to the point of being possible to relate a

interact when building a discourse in

particular word usage to a certain mind-

this specific genre. There is a tendency

set, as was done in this article.

of being less biased in quotation choice,

In the specific context of Uganda,

giving voice to different opinions even if

what comes as a surprise is that, even

primary discourse directs them to a par-

though Daily Monitor and New Vision

ticular stance. Doing so is part of the al-

are respectively independent and state-

ready mentioned attempted neutrality of

owned, there is no difference in their

journalistic discourse. Slightly less com-

attitude toward this topic. Current Ugan-

mon is the tendency to give voice only to

dan President Yoweri Musevini’s regime

those who agree and, even less common,

has an oscillating attitude in relation to

to preferably let dissonant voices in.

freedom of press. On the one hand, the beginning of his long-lasting mandate, in 1986, maintained the relative openness of his predecessors, when compared to the extremely hostile environment of

132

Conclusion

T

his article attempted to capture the present state of homosexuality in

address political issues of identity. Based on her personal life story, Santa Cruz traces

gmail.com

back the path she has taken from shame to pride, showing the strength of the violence imbued in the racist discourse she had to face, and how her acquiring awareness of that discursive construction made her powerful enough to fight back. Keywords: Discourse. Peru. Victoria Santa Cruz. Racism. Social Change.

V

ictoria Santa Cruz’s poem at the same time fights against racism by making use

of discursive devices and shows the path that the author has taken until she re-

peru/poblacion.

alizes how racism was built through discourse and how she makes use of that under-

htm. Accessed on:

standing to fight it back. As a way to assist in the recreation of the author’s feelings as

Nov. 10, 2014

well as its evolution process – from labeling, to mirror identification, to self-denial, to self-acceptance, and finally up to terminological appropriation and a counter-discourse production – the poem makes use of enriching elements other than that of a rhymed speech, such as sound coming from musical instruments and voices coming from the chorus. Before moving on to the poem, we will take a brief look at the issue of racism, specifically in Peru. Peruvian population is, nowadays, constituted by 2% of black people 2 and, simi-

lar to most of other countries in the Americas, it had a slavery-based colonial econo-

indígenas por

my beginning in the 1520’s. During colonial times, African people who came or were

debajo de estos,

brought to Peru played an important role in settling the Spanish colonies in America, either as free citizens or as slaves. As time went by, the role Afro-Peruvians played in Peruvian society was diminished and, again, such as in most of the American countries, due to the reinforcement of the image of the white Europeans as the “superior race” - which received scientific contribution from the Nazism in the middle of the 20th century - black people started being discriminated according to their skin color, creating a social-economic hierarchy called “pigmentocracia”3 .

The discourse that claims the superiority of the white European race against the

Accessed on: Nov.

inferiority of the black African one - and other ethnic groups - is difficult to be dat-

25, 2014.

ed, and is continually spread up to current days. Although in some countries, such

135

revista YAWP as Brazil, we are able to see, at a certain

the black color, which is extended, then,

degree, a profound miscegenation, the

to the color of someone’s skin.

ways of racial discrimination vary from

The situation of the insult which in-

different times and places, with its forms

spired the poem is detailed by the author

ranging from segregationist Laws (racial

in an interview given to a show of the

segregation in the middle of the 20th

Peruvian channel TV Perú. There, San-

century in the United States, Apartheid

ta Cruz narrates the time when a white

from the middle up to the end of the 20th

family moved into her neighborhood and

century in South Africa, etc.), up to in-

how they openly expressed their distaste

equalities regarding the access to social

for having a black child playing with

and economic opportunities, and down

other children on the streets, and how

to verbal offenses.

they avoided any relationship with her

Racism is a ubiquitous problem, it

because of her skin color. For Guimarães

shares a strong linkage to a Western-cen-

(2003), the situation of insults are com-

tered globalization and has similarities

monly claimed to be the consequence of

in every place of the world, hence why

conf licts. However, he denies such com-

we understand that such poem can be

monsense by stating that the insult itself

analyzed regardless of the fact that it

may give rise to a conf lict. And it seems,

was written and performed in the Span-

through Santa Cruz’s accounts of the fact

ish language in Peru. In spite of the fact

that the situation indeed happened such

of it being a literary work, the way it

as the latter. In his article, too, insults

makes use of discursive devices is worth

coming from neighbors make up the sec-

of attention, for it is very well made with

ond greatest number of denounced cases

elements which may be discussed in the

of racial insults in Brazil, being in its

field of discourse analysis. Thanks to

majority white women insulting black

that, it is possible to analyze racism in

women. The cases of insults presented in

Peru by making use of theoretical texts

Guimarães’ article have many different

dealing with racism in Brazil, which

reasons. In Santa Cruz’s case, the report-

shares even more similarities due to

ed reason was a dispute of a game placed

both countries’ same regional location.

on the street among the children of the

The purpose of this paper is to an-

136

neighborhood.

alyze how racism is presented in dis-

First, the poem starts with a narra-

course and to show one of the ways in

tion situated in the past, at a time when

which discourse is used to address such

the author is five years old. She gives

issue. In the text we will deal with, it is

then the viewer/reader an account of

easy to notice how racial discrimination

how she was attacked and offended on

is subtly built up in discourse and how

the street, and behind the word lied a

effective it is in its violent purpose by

racist discourse (in Spanish, “negra”). By

posing the racial dif ference in a hierar-

then, Santa Cruz identified herself with

chical set, giving negative attributes to

the “label” and, at the same time, inter-

linguistic studies nalized all the negative aspects linked to

of the performance: it is possible to see,

the term with which her new neighbors

from the beginning and up to that point,

ascribed her. In order to illustrate how

that the beats of the percussion are at a

the hidden truth is present in such label,

low pace, indicating perhaps the author’s

I bring here Guimarães’ article (2003),

depression for not being able, despite the

which deals with “Racial Insult in Bra-

efforts, to change the situation where

zil”:

she is in - change her skin color and oth[S]ince the social and racial position of the insulted is already historically established by means of a long process of prior humiliation and subordination, the very term that designates them as a racial group (‘preto’ or ‘negro’) has already become in itself a pejorative term, capable of shorthand use, unaccompanied by adjectives and qualifications. The term ‘negro’ or ‘preto’ thus comes to be a verbal or chromatic synthesis of a whole constellation of stigmas relating to the makeup of a racial identity. More than the term, the color itself acquires this symbolic stigmatizing function, as the synonyms listed in vernacular

language

dictionaries

clearly show: dirty, stained, lugubrious, dreadful, grievous, accursed, nefarious, perverse, and so on. Stigma can be so deep-seated that a Black person could be offended, for example, by a reference as subtle as this one: ‘também, olha a cor do indivíduo’ (‘Besides, look at the individual’s color.’). (GUIMARÃES, 2003, p. 136)

er African traits she has (thick hair and lips, etc). The voices coming from the chorus have an angry and violent tone, indicating the violence once felt. But at a certain point, she stops stepping back and finds no way out other than stepping forward. It is interesting to see here the variety of meanings one may come up in order to interpret the opposition

“stepping

back”/“stepping

forward”, since it is the turning point of the whole poem, which is divided in two parts by this very opposition. When she was first called “negra”, she understood it as an offense (as it really was the intention), and “stepped back”. With this “stepping back”, the author may mean that: a) she did not want that label because of the implicit negativity that came with it; b) she may also have understood it as a warning not to come close to the “other” and keep the boundaries which separated Peruvian people by their skin colors, or; c) finally, she may have wanted to say that she recognized the diminishing intention coming with the verbal violence and had no other choice than to “step back”.

Thus, as her life goes on, she suffers

So, at a certain point of the poem,

from not being able to get rid of such stig-

she decides not to step back anymore and

ma linked to her identity. Here, it is con-

that is when the whole suffering is trans-

venient to analyze the other elements

formed into strength to resist racial segregation. From then on, the beats of the

137

revista YAWP percussion get faster and more vibrant,

It is possible to draw a parallel with

bringing a renewed energy to the per-

the Brazilian scenario of appropriation

formance, indicating the energy she gets

of the term “negro” by the “movimento

from assuming her identity, yet attribut-

negro” (Black political movement) in or-

ing a new meaning to it. The chorus’ voic-

der not only to set ourselves free from the

es, which once shouted angrily against

stigma associated with the word “preto”,

her, now come from herself with a con-

but also to include other non-white peo-

fident, powerful and vibrant tone, more

ple under such identity denomination,

melodiously than the previous ones.

as Magalhães (2004) claims in her arti-

When she finally understands that

cle “Interdiscursividade e conf lito entre

the whole matter is not with the word

discursos sobre raça em reportagens bra-

“negra” itself, but with the (racist) discur-

sileiras”.

sive chain embedded in it, she decides to

By appropriating the word “negra/o”,

appropriate the word and construct,as

Victoria Santa Cruz inverts then the

a black person, her counter-discourse,

whole meaning of it, in order to use the

now ascribing to the word “negra/o”

term which describes her social identi-

all the positive characteristics and as-

ty without being diminished by it. It is

sociations she could encounter, be it in

noticeable that the word itself does not

its sonority or in the positive aesthetic

change along the poem, only the attitude,

qualities of the black color, etc. Here, she

along with the musical elements that as-

assumes the role of ‘founding subject’, ac-

sume another perspective, another color,

cording to Foucault (1970), where the poet

another rhythm, thus, another meaning.

voluntarily proposes a meaning to, in

The process adopted by the poet, in an in-

this case, not an empty word, but a word

dubitable strength for its well-developed

filled with negative characteristics up to

artistic work, is already theorized by

that point in its historicity.

Fairclough (1992) under one of the types

She could never deny - even when she wanted to - her identity, because of

y head is full with doubts on how I should start this story, or even whether I should tell it to you. The fact is that I was so taken aback by what had happened

that I suppose telling you is a way of keeping it alive. So please, do not forget it! Well, to start with I feel like I should warn you that what you are about to hear has completely changed the way I see people. Let’s say that I used to focus more on the darkness rather than on the stars. And believe me, I’m dying to go straight to business, to the gist of the story itself but I was never very keen on those people who spoil the whole goddamn surprise like when you go to the movies and someone tells you what will happen in the end. That really gets my goat. I mean, why can’t you keep your mouth shut, for god’s sake?!? Anyway, some time ago I moved to L.A to work as an assistant director in one of these television studios. It wasn’t initially what I had planned for my career, but the salary was good and I desperately needed to pay my bills. I was part of a crew in charge of a show called “Every Cloud has its Silver Lining” which was basically about finding actors who were never given a real shot to do something good. I mean something really good, not those Mickey Mouse costumes kind of jobs, but something that would make their parents proud. So what we would do was, we’d go to drama schools and do a bunch of auditions till we got five actors who were willing to take part in the show. I always thought it was very sad the fact that only five of them were chosen, I mean, I wish I was the one making everybody’s dreams come true, but I was only an assistant so you can imagine how hard it would be to change things. I didn’t have the power to do that, neither the balls. Once we had chosen the five lucky ones, we would sort of make a reality show that would focus on the rehearsing and shooting period of the short movies they would be in. The scripts were written by this guy called Ethan, and I swear to you he was so talented that I just wanted to applaud him whenever he walked in the room. And the fact that I myself wanted to be a writer someday just made me admire him even more. I find it absolutely incredible the fact that a piece of writing can allow someone to live as somebody else for a while, and it really doesn’t matter if it will be better or worse than their real life, it is just good to lose yourself sometimes, you know? And you could see that those actors were really enjoying loosing themselves in the lives Ethan had created for them. I think I even might have envied them a bit. It’s a shame I have never had the so-called talent to be an actress. I’ve always been a good liar, though.

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creative works Every single day we would be either shooting in the backstage or the rehearsals so I had never really had the opportunity to talk to Ethan, cos I had to be working with Mr. Boring director instead. But there was this one day when Ethan was there watching the actors and I suddenly got so nervous when I realized he was there that I figured I’d better get myself a tea or something to chill out a bit. So I decided to go to this diner during the five minute break. And you’re not gonna believe this, but I swear the minute I shut the studio’s door I heard someone asking me “Hey, are you going to get some coffee? Wait for me!” I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even turn to see who that was so I just yelled “Yeap” and continued to walk. Turns out Ethan was the one who had said that, no kidding. So we went to this little coffee shop just across the street and in the meantime I was just trying so hard to act normal. I even thought about talking about the weather like normal people do. Fortunately, he was the one to talk first, asking my name and all that sort of formalities stuff. It was kind of weird cos his voice didn’t really match his body, it was like The Hulk with a little kid’s voice. I even started to think that I could act indeed, cos I managed quite well not to burst out laughing and going like “Dude, that’s a strange voice!” Well, the thing is that I only had the chance to say my name then, cos right before we got to the coffee shop, all of a sudden this beggar sprung up. I’m not gonna lie to you, I was a bit scared, I mean you could tell he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I guess I was just blind with my prejudice. He asked Ethan if he had some change, I think he must have realized I was a bit scared. “Do you want me to buy you a sandwich?” – said Ethan. “Ok, then.” - replied the beggar. “So, hmmm... join us, we’re just going to that coffee shop over there.” “Hmm... I think I better not, I mean the owner already knows me and he wouldn’t like me to come in.” “Ok, so just wait right here, ok? We’ll be right back.” As soon as we entered the coffee shop, all I wanted to do was give Ethan a hug. He ordered two coffees and a ham sandwich. When we got out of the shop, the beggar was waiting on the sidewalk. “Here you go, buddy.” “God bless you.” – said the beggar like he had never seen a sandwich before. “Listen, what’s your name?” “My name is Jim, sir.” “Oh, please don’t call me sir, I’m too young for that... What can you do, Jim?” “What do you mean?” “I mean, have you ever had a job? Or were you just born a beggar?” “No” – said the beggar in a quite angry tone. “I’ve had jobs before, I used to work in this farm in Texas but my boss was no good to me, he was kind of bossy... I mean I know that a boss must be bossy but I think he took that too seriously, man!”

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revista YAWP “I see...”- said Ethan while he was looking around, thinking whether he should say what he was about to say. “So listen up Jim, do you see that building over there?” “Yeap.” “So, there is where me and my friend here work (Yeap, that’s right, he called me his F-R-I-E-N-D) so... why don’t you drop by there, let’s say 10 o’clock tomorrow and we see what we can do for you. How does that sound?” “That sounds great!” - said the beggar while he went to hug Ethan. I think that was one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Wish I could have written something as beautiful as that. After that, Ethan and I went back to the studio and it was funny cos Ethan smelled so bad that nobody wanted to be near him anymore. I took advantage of the situation and started to tell everyone that he had crapped his pants because he was so nervous when he met the assistant director. Everybody laughed at that, but I really wish they had believed it. Anyway, once my job was done I walked back to my hotel room which was just a couple of blocks from the studio. On my way back, I tried to see if that beggar was still around but I assumed he might have gone to bed earlier that day. After I got to my room, I had a really hard time trying to sleep, cos I couldn’t get Ethan out of my mind. I woke up in the couch the next day with a guy selling carpets on TV. I ran to the bathroom, took a shower and walked back to the studio. It was still 9 o’clock so I wasn’t expecting to run into the beggar then, but when I got there, there he was with a bicycle and Ethan right next to him. “Hey! Morning, guys.” “Hey, look what I’ve just got from Mr. Ethan right there.” “Wow, that’s pretty nice!” “Yeah, do you wanna take a ride with me? C’mon, don’t worry, I have a license!” “Ok.” So I jumped on the bike and the beggar started to run in circles like a drunk man. “Do you want me to turn the air-conditioning on? Or perhaps the radio?” – said the beggar while he started to whisper a song. As soon as we stopped, I looked into Jim’s eyes and they were just brighter than the sun. A smile suddenly sprung up in my face and that was the very moment when I decided I didn’t want to be a writer anymore. I wanted to do what Ethan had done for Jim. I wanted to really change people’s stories. I wondered how long that would take if I decided to write a book instead of teaching people like Jim how to read.

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Return the Ring Márcio Cardoso de Sena1 Rodrigo Giannini Artioli

1 English undergraduate students at

W

University of São

e are closing. One last drink while we talk, mate? First of all, I am flattered that

Paulo. E-mails:

you asked my opinion on such a personal issue. Second, I must warn you that

Sheila. Who’s Sheila? She was somebody that I liked and who liked me, or at least liked the idea of marrying me. She liked it so much that she was practically the one who proposed. “The day you want to marry me, you just need to buy the ring” was the kind of thing she said. The insistence of the overweight girl – who, I can’t deny, was very affectionate – and the lack of other perspectives of my town finally took me to the city to buy a ring. Well, what literally took me to the city was my bicycle. While I was going everything seemed to conspire to please Sheila and I was promptly sticking to marital thoughts. But things weren’t so clear after I’ve bought the ring, a little golden thing with two semi-precious gems. I felt it weighing down in my pocket, while the responsibilities that marriage could bring over me weighed down in my head. I almost reckon it was all that weight and not something that I hadn’t seen on the road that punctured my bicycle and left me on foot. Maybe I still was closer to the city – I can’t remember – and then I should have returned to try to fix the tyre, but the way back was a steep slope and the town, though still not visible at the end of the hillside, seemed to drag me down. After thinking for a while, I went down the vicinal road. And while I descended, I could see this beautiful car, a brand-new thing for that time and a collector’s item for today’s standards. “Flat tyre, pal?” asked the driver when he stopped by my side. “I could give you a ride, but I’m heading to the city.” The logical option would be to keep walking to town, but the convertible that stopped there was a charming proposal. I hesitated anyhow. “What about the bicycle?” “It looks like it’s not working that great for you.” I yielded and got in the car. I’m not sure what made me feel comfortable so fast in the presence of the strange, who was called Hector, but the fact is that the chat f lowed freely. Maybe it was the ease of the car, its leather seats, the breeze in the face. Or maybe Hector was a really charismatic guy. After he told me about the parties he attended, the schemes he did to earn his money and (without any shame) of the little time he spent in prison and I told him about my job then as a waiter, that I was a goalkeeper on weekends and how I never did anything riskier than shoplifting, I finally mentioned the ring.

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revista YAWP “I guess you’re gonna do more time than I did.” He put his hand in my shoulder. “Come and drink with me. If you’re still up to this nonsense later, it will count as your bachelor party.” The pub was not my kind of place. Not that it was too much of a fancy pub, but it surely was an alternative place. After some shots Hector started his lecture against marriage. “Have you ever thought that when you get married you close the doors for anything new in your life? Do you have any idea of what I was doing at your age? I was trying a new thing each day. I had no boss to tell me when I should arrive at work, nor a wife to tell me when I should check-in at home. Sometimes it was hard, sure: waking up in the gutter or in the precinct. But I know it was the best way.” He held my arms. “Absolute freedom! That’s the only thing we may call life!” “It doesn’t look like it’s fun all the time...” I said coyly. “It is fun most of the time. And it is always right.” And he didn’t stop. He carried on depicting bohemian scenes as enthusiastically as Sheila depicted how our wedding would be. He seemed to know much about these things. I shyly resisted. I thought that a humdrum life was at least a stable one. The lifestyle Hector defended was too risky; it relied too much on luck. “Luck? This life brings you luck!” He shoved his hand in his pocket, pulled something and slammed it on the table. When he opened his hand his car key was by the side of my beer. “Take the car and go to that jewellery. Return the ring. The convertible, you can keep as your lucky charm. You know papers will not be a problem.” I was petrified and this I can remember perfectly: Hector’s face didn’t allow any doubt of his seriousness. I stared at the keys, pulled the ring box and looked for what seemed a long time. Both had the same weight and the same size at that moment. I grabbed them and put each one in a different pocket while I stood up without a word. Hector nodded smiling, as if my gesture spoke on behalf of me: I do. “Come back here later, so we can drink the money of this ring.” I could still listen to Hector yelling while I opened the pub door. Ah! As I tell you it feels like it happened yesterday, but some years went by since this weird incident and since I moved here from my little town. What? You think I’m telling you to fool around as if you had nothing to lose? If you think so, you haven’t paid any attention-- Jean, darling! I’m glad you are here. Come here and show your hand to my mate. A pretty jewel, isn’t it? Well, if my Jean comes to pick me up that means the pub is officially closed. C’mon, mate. And when we leave, take a good look at the car that brought her here.

Agradecimentos We would like to thank the copy editors, the authors, designers Maria and Renata, professors Deusa and Maria Sílvia, and our family and friends for the support, dedication, and guidance. We dedicate this edition to all of you! The editors